A true crime film about a crew of retired crooks who pull off a major heist in London’s jewelry district. What starts off as their last criminal hurrah quickly turns into a brutal nightmare due to greed.
“King of Thieves” starts out with an “Ocean’s Eleven” vibe to it, filled with lighthearted banter and jazzy, finger-snapping music as our aging protagonists make their way around London as they plan what they hope will be their final heist. But once the movie moves into the second act, the overall ambiance changes gears and the story becomes more serious in tone as the intended outcome doesn’t go according to plan. But just when you think the final act might turn into a comedy of errors as our elderly thieves try to act normally after one of the biggest heists in British history, it does a complete 180 and becomes even more serious than the second act, as characters talk about and even attempt to off each other. It is such a waste too as there is no shortage of top-notch English and Irish thespians at the top of their game, I just wish the film was half as amusing as its central counterparts.
After Brian Reeder’s (Michael Caine) wife Lynne (Francesca Annis) passes away, he vows to keep a promise to her to stay on the straight and narrow after many years in and out of prison for jewelry heists. When a young jeweler Brian knows, Basil (Charlie Cox), comes to him with an opportunity to partake in a heist that he claims will net them at least several hundred million pounds, Brian is somewhat hesitant, not wanting to return to that lifestyle having been out of it for so long but the thought of moving away from England, where the fresh painful memories of Lynne’s passing still reside, is more than enough to get him back in.
He calls on his former heist buddies Terry (Jim Broadbent), Danny (Ray Winstone), John (Tom Courtenay), and Carl (Paul Whitehouse) who are all fed up with living retired lives and who yearn for one more piece of action. Basil goes over the details of the location and the haul as each member of the crew puts their years of expertise to good work as they come together to work as a group one last time but when the plan begins to show signs of instability, each man begins to crack under the pressure and once the heist is completed, the real drama begins, as everyone quickly turns on each other and greed encompasses them all.
“King of Thieves” might have worked better had the filmmakers chosen to keep the overall narrative in one particular genre, instead of trying to mash several together. As a drama, it could have worked well, showing the serious side of the profession of thieves, or if they had chosen a more lighthearted approach, that could have made for a very amusing feature but trying to combine two completely different styles, in this particular instance, just doesn’t work. One minute you’re laughing at the interplay between two characters, the next, they are talking about killing and hurting each other, men who have been friends for decades. The old saying, “no honor among thieves,” proves true here as each man’s greed enshrouds them completely and leaves no one unscathed.
Typically, in a film with so many unlikable characters, there is usually one who stands out, the person who, against all odds, stands up to show that they have a conscience and a code of conduct, no matter how shady their line of work might be but here, not one man succeeds in doing so, even though they have been friends for years and worked together many times over, and thus, you end up despising each character and as a result, the movie itself. However, I will say, it was fun watching so many amazing and distinguished actors onscreen together, Michael Caine, Jim Broadbent, Ray Winstone, Tom Courtenay, Paul Whitehouse, and Michael Gambon, a whos-who of renowned English and Irish actors, it’s just a pity the film couldn’t give them all something better to work with.
Available on Blu-ray™ (plus Digital), DVD, and Digital March 26th
