An Inside Look At A Botched Bank Robbery

Rating: 9/10 (9 June 2008)

Al Pacino puts on a brilliant performance here as Sonny Wortzik, a desperate man who tries to rob a bank - an attempt that just keeps going more and more wrong as each minute goes by. Apparently based on true events (with the real names having been changed) the movie provides a fascinating look at both the bungled bank job and Sonny's extremely complicated personal life. Divorced from his wife (with whom he had two children) Sonny had begun a relationship with a pre-operative transsexual (played by Chris Sarandon) who was becoming suicidal over not being able to afford a sex change operation. In partnership with Sal (John Cazale) Sonny robs the bank, but the police respond very quickly and Sonny ends up with a bank full of hostages. An interesting aside in the movie is watching how the various hostages handled the situation. The only real weakness I can see in this movie is that there's no explanation of who Sal was, or of how he was connected with Sonny. Sal provides a bit of humour to the movie. He comes across as completely lost, and begins to worry when he finds out that the media are reporting that the robbers are "two homosexuals." He wasn't a homosexual, and he wanted the world to know that! Charles Durning also put on a good performance as NYPD Detective Moretti, who's handling the robbery, and who comes across as a pretty decent guy who really wants to find a way out of this for everyone.
Essentially what we have here is a fascinating story complemented by excellent performances all around. It's a 9/10.