This Big-Name Crime Drama Concentrates on the Dance, Not the Kiss

Rating: 7/10 (27 April 2012)

De Niro and Pacino share the screen for, somehow, the first time ever in this mature, complex cops-and-robbers saga. Excluding an explosive, high-powered gunfight and a dramatic, suspenseful standoff of a finale, Heat is almost entirely interested in playing up tension and exploring character motivations. Its powerful cast is astoundingly well-rounded, with a complete lack of black-and-white personalities. Villains show their soft sides, heroes bare their dark underbellies, and in-betweeners continue to straddle the chasm between fates. Devoting the vast majority of its running time to the careful, calculated dance between law-saddled feds and their spooked targets, it applies the same flirty mentality to the inevitable rendezvous between the two big-name stars. It's a film that constantly teases its viewers with promises, only to yank them out of sight at the very last moment and resume playing hide-and-seek. That persistent devotion to delaying the shrapnel in favor of more character-building does result in a tremendous ensemble of players, and ultimately we care about the fate of every one of them. It also causes an already-long three hour duration to feel more like five or six.