Haunting portrait of sacrifices made on the altar of success

Rating: Null/10 (10 December 1999)

A fascinating portrait of two obsessed careerists and their neglected loved ones in a world of high-stakes crime. Robert De Niro plays a brilliant thief and Al Pacino plays an equally clever detective out to track him down. Both men are highly principled and protective of their crew, but each is addicted to their chosen professions to the point that nothing is allowed to get in the way. Michael Mann delineates the alienation felt by the detective's family and the thief's girlfriend in scintillating dialogue and rich performances. The overall effect is haunting and stayed with me many hours after the film was over. Quite separate from the cops and robbers story, it reflects our modern age of success-at-all-costs and tallies the damage left behind in broken lives.