Good Crime Movie ruined by the ending

Rating: 7/10 (14 January 2006)

Kevin Spacey won an Oscar as best supporting actor in this interesting film noir. But in fact Spacey is closer to being the principal actor in this film and his work, while good, is certainly not outstanding in my opinion. If anyone in this movie deserved a Supporting Actor Oscar it should have gone to Pete Postelthwaite, a graduate (as I recall) of the Royal Shakespeare Company, who makes a great villain with a foreign accent that can't quite be placed. I would certainly void the Oscar that went to the script writer. This movie is fine until the ending which goes beyond implausibility to the absolutely ridiculous. Many "caper" movies have implausible endings. (David Mamet's caper films come to mind.) But this one goes beyond beyond beyond. I won't ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen the movie but the ending dragged my rating down several notches. I think -- pardon the insult guys and girls -- it testifies to the youth of most contributors to this website that they are prepared to treat as a "classic" a movie that ranks far below gangster films of yesteryear that ended more believably. This is what used to be called a B Movie when double bills were common. It's enjoyable, but that's the most that can be said for it.