Blood and Wine

Plot synopsis:
Alex Gates (Jack Nicholson) is a wine merchant living in Miami who has distanced himself from his alcoholic wife Suzanne (Judy Davis) with his philandering, and from his stepson Jason (Stephen Dorff) with his indifference. Alex is heavily in debt, and hatches a plan to steal a valuable diamond necklace from the house of his clients, the Reese family, where his Cuban mistress Gabriela (Jennifer Lopez) works. He cases the house during a wine delivery with Jason, who works in Alex's business, although not happily. Jason becomes attracted to Gabriela, unaware of her relationship with his father.
On the day of the heist, Alex and his safe-cracker partner Victor (Michael Caine) arrive at the house under the pretense that the Reeses' wine cellar needs repairs, otherwise their wine will be ruined. Gabriela was supposed to let them in, but she was fired the day before. Fortunately, Alex had cultivated a relationship with the security guard and is able to convince him to admit them. Victor sends Alex and the guard off on an errand while he works on the safe, but a second guard becomes suspicious, although Victor is able to complete the job before being discovered.
The pair decide that Alex will pawn the necklace in New York City, and he invites Gabriela to go with him. As he is packing, Suzanne chances upon the airline tickets for him and Gabriela and immediately realizes he is having another affair. The two of them get into a physical alteration and she knocks him out. Deciding to leave him, she empties out his suitcase, where he has hidden the necklace, and uses it for her own clothes. Jason walks in and the two of them flee to the Florida Keys. Upon arriving, they discover the necklace, but Suzanne doesn't want to keep it, even after Jason has it appraised, discovering it is worth $1 million. Jason also visits Gabriela back in Miami, giving her the phone number of the place they are staying at.
Victor and Alex meet with Jason's friend Henry (Harold Perrineau). Alex assaults Henry in an attempt to learn Jason's whereabouts, but Henry doesn't know anything. The pair contact various jewelers to be on the lookout for the necklace and get a report from the jeweler who gave Jason the appraisal. Arriving in Key Largo, Victor pretends to flirt with Suzanne, but Jason, who has gotten a description of Henry's assailant, realizes who Victor is and after a fight, escapes with his mother in their car. Victor and Alex give chase and cause an accident that kills Suzanne. Although injured, Jason discharges himself from the hospital and returns to Miami to fight with his father, only to find Gabriela in Alex's bed. After a brief argument, they reconcile.
Alex returns home to find both Jason and Gabriela there and he accuses them of having sex. Meanwhile, Victor has been following Jason and confronts him alone. Jason convinces him that he has returned the necklace to Alex, although he has done no such thing. Victor then goes to Alex's house. The two of them fight and Victor is killed. Later, Gabriela visits Jason, and he shows her the necklace. The next day, she calls Alex to tell him its location. They arrive at Jason's boat and Alex and Jason fight, during which time Alex is critically injured. Gabriela leaves the necklace with him as she runs away. With an ambulance on the way, Alex realizes he has no choice but to dispose of the evidence and throws the necklace into the ocean.

Tags: romantic, neo noir, murder

Review:
Jack Nicholson and Michael Caine are so good in this movie.
Stephen Dorff is a great young actor, and Jennifer Lopez is stunningly beautiful, if at times out of her league here.The script is good, the direction is excellent, and the film, in total, is a solid 8.5 on the 10 scale.
The team of Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson made two of the strongest movies of the 1970s, 'Five Easy Pieces' and 'The King Of Marvin Gardens'.
But it is an excellent piece of modern film noir, one of the most underrated Hollywood movies of recent years, and the best thing Rafelson has made since the early 1980s.
Nicholson is perfectly cast as a dissatisfied and greedy wine merchant who hatches a plot to steal a client's valuable necklace.
He is assisted by a slimy British crook (a superb turn from Michael Caine in his best acting role in years) and his sexy young girlfriend (Jennifer Lopez, who is surprisingly good).
Things get very complicated very quickly when their plan goes belly up, and Nicholson's estranged wife (Judy Davis) and his stepson (Steven Dorff) get into the picture.
Alex and Victor give chase leading to a double-crossing finale of greed and deception.This is not what it appears - to compare it to the many "heist gone wrong" movies around now is quite unfair.
Caine is more sleazy and obviously violent, while Lopez, Dorff and Davis all play supposed innocents sucked into the crime.However the truth is that the film reveals the greed inside each of them, only Judy Davis as Nicholson's wife comes off as anyway sympathetic, but even she has a drinking problem.
Lopez and Dorff display their greed gradually and their characters develop during the film to be as unpleasant as Nicholson.
Florida noir at it's best since Huston's Key Largo; perhaps Nicholson's most underrated star turn from the 90s.
I'm not sure why I haven't seen Blood and Wine from start to finish up until today, but it has always been intriguing as that one Jack Nicholson movie I would see in bits and pieces on TV, with J-Lo in an early supporting role as the not-quite femme fatale, and Michael Caine as a guy with a very bad cough.
Seeing it today I'm reminded of the classic work Bob Rafelson, director, and Nicholson did back in the 70s, even if they already reached their peak on their first film, Five Easy Pieces.
But at the least Blood and Wine represents a return to form for Nicholson under the director he worked with most, either as actor or writer (he co-wrote Head), especially in the F.E.P. role of a SOB, which, of course, is usually as easy for Nicholson as raising up his eyebrows.
It doesn't help that his wife (Judy Davis) has a son from a previous marriage (Stephen Dorff), who has it in for Alex big-time.
Meanwhile, that jewel necklace is almost up in the air, and all his craggy partner, Vic (Michael Caine), can do is cough a lot and act more as a dumb muscle than as a consummate professional.So in these ingredients, Rafelson and his writers have a classic, cooked-up noir with enough style by its actors and locale to make up for what would be considered 'too violent' to show back in the forties (probably too sexy too, what with Lopez's 'assets').
He's not breaking new ground or setting up himself for the usual awards circuits, but it's still very cool to see him playing Alex as believable work of sleaze, almost in the tradition of Bogart (he actually does just as good, if not better, here than he did in Rafelson's 'Postman' remake).
I wish I could see Lopez in more roles like this where we might not believe totally her intentions for either of the men in her life, but is not necessarily cruel like the old femme fatales either.Released, as they say, under the radar back in 96, Blood and Wine uses its Miami and Florida locales like they're still lush and lustful and engaging, and the danger here isn't diminished from what's usually expected in the urban cities and dark alleys.
In Miami, Alex Gates (Jack Nicholson) is a small trader of wines, married with Suzanne (Judy Davies).
It boasts fine performances from veterans e.g. Jack Nicholson and Michael Caine.
If you are a fan of film-noir orJack Nicholson and/or Michael Caine , this is a must watch for you..
BLOOD & WINE (1996) *** Jack Nicholson, Michael Caine, Stephen Dorff, Jennifer Lopez, Judy Davis, Harold Perrineau.
Fine devious neo noir and serpentine twists along the way with slick wine salesman Nicholson partnering with chronic, oily Caine (gleefully enjoying his scumbag role) for a get rich quick diamond necklace heist that only gets botched (natch) when his stepson Dorff starts to add up the heinous acts they've committed.
'Blood and Wine' has a sort of film noire feel to it.
The big draw here is Jack Nicholson and Michael Caine, working together, for the first time, I believe.
They provide two nicely contrasted portraits in malice: Nicholson as a two-bit hood with a connoisseur's taste and delusions of grandeur, down on his luck, and Michael Caine as a grimly desperate safecracker with advanced respiratory disease who feels the grim reaper at his heels and wants one last big score.
With the talent on board, Jack Nicholson, Michael Cane, Jennifer Lopez, and Stephen Dorff, "Blood and Wine" must be regarded as a misfire.
I thoroughly enjoyed the twists and turns of Blood & Wine's plot as I steered through it by some very interesting characters who were brought to life magnificently by a talented cast, especially Nicholson and Caine.
This movie tries to be a modern day film noir and just quite doesn't work.
This was directed by Bob Rafelson, who also directed Nicholson in his first great starring role in Five Easy Pieces.
This movie has a great cast that has Nicholson, Michael Caine, Judy Davis, Jennifer Lopez and Stephen Dorff.
Nicholson owns a wine cellar but is having some money troubles and hatches a plan with Michael Caine to steal a million dollar necklace while some rich clients are on vacation.
This movie just doesn't work as a film noir and is just a major disappointment.
I watched this movie on the basis of the cast alone - how could something with Jack Nicholson, Michael Caine & Judy Davis in the cast be other than brilliant?
Stephen Dorff did his best with a part that never really defined itself - Jennifer Lopes should not give up her day job - no further comment!I feel that the writers and producers should have watched some of the excellent heist movies from the past and learnt the lesson that it is OK to have a convoluted plot as long as you keep the action going.A waste of time and talent..
You would think the tandem of the glorious Michael Caine, the always stunning Jack Nicholson and the adorable Judy Davis would set a movie's heels on fire but "Blood and Wine" falls far from expectations as the sparks never start on set.
Mr. Caine, Mr. Nicholson and Ms. Davis give punctuation and try their best to put a breath of life into this lifeless film with an all too obvious plot.
Demented) but his character is far from complex, and Jennifer Lopez can't keep her faux Cuban accent up throughout the course of the film.The plot is rather generic and the suspense that the movie is trying to portray is better invoked by the musical score than the cinematic or script climax.As a saving grace the location scouting is great, really espousing the feeling of the Floridian backdrop.
In all fairness, I think Jennifer Lopez is a good actress but it just doesn't show in this movie, in which she plays a character with a thick Cuban accent, who is supposed to be the love interest of the movie of the two main characters.
Stephen Dorff feels out of place since he's only ever real good and convincing as an actor when he plays a villain, which is mostly due to his looks.
Still it's interesting to see Jack Nicholson and Michael Caine as partners in crime.
Especially Nicholson makes the movie worthwhile at times and his character is perhaps the only real good and enjoyable one of the movie.
Nicholson presents a disappointing lack of class, Lopez puts off by her strong Cuban accent, and only Michael Caine seems to tower above the rest of the cast, in a role which is nevertheless a bad waste of his talents.
A wine merchant (Jack Nicholson) and a sickly veteran safecracker (Michael Caine) join forces in the plot to steal a valuable necklace.
Infrequent director Rafelson brings his good eye for Americana to a rollicking good crime tale with shades of the classic "Key Largo." Although the heist itself may seem a bit too high risk to stretch credulity (all those witnesses!), this is a smart, sexy movie that knows that greed and the compulsion to break the law have their own inner logic irrespective of risk.
He's married to Judy Davis, but is having an affair with Jennifer Lopez, and although he seems like a respectable wine merchant on the surface, he's actually planning to steal a diamond necklace from one of his clients, with the help of his partner Michael Caine.
But, since it's Jack Nicholson, we forgive him.Blood and Wine isn't your typical heist movie, because there are more elements to the plot than just the robbery.
There are family tensions, a love triangle, and character development, which helps make this a highly enjoyable movie to watch.
Stephen Dorff, while playing Jack Nicholson's stepson, took the time to do his homework.
Alex Gates (Jack Nicholson) neglects his stepson Jason (Stephen Dorff) and his wife Suzanne (Judy Davis).
Alex is looking to steal a diamond necklace from his customer the Reeses with the help of safecracker partner Victor (Michael Caine) and his mistress Gabriela (Jennifer Lopez) who is the Reeses' maid.This is a great cast with a good performance from Caine.
But the teaming of Jack Nicholson and Michael Caine alone make this film worth watching.
I love seeing top-notch pros working off each other in films (It was the only reason to bother with SPACE COWBOYS), and when it's done as well as it's done in BLOOD AND WINE, it can't be beat.
The partnership of the two characters would be interesting to watch even if they were played by lesser actors, but in the hands of Caine and Nicholson, we get some near-classic moments.
Jack Nicholson looks vaguely bored, while Michael Caine gives a mediocre (by his high standards) performance.
Without doubt this film has great performances from Caine, Nicholson and Davis (though hers' is a short role in comparison).
But watching Nicholson, Caine & Davis together has to be (if you enjoy good acting) one of the pinnacles of film-viewing, particularly the repartees between the two male leads.
I 00won't tell you what happens next--you'll have to see for yourself.While "Blood and Wine" is a well made film, some viewers will no doubt have trouble with the movie simply because there is no one to like or care about in the story.
The acting was good (especially by Jack Nicholson!) and the cinematography was great!
Michael Caine also plays an interesting character!
This is a very underrated film and it should be watched by film buffs and fans of Jack Nicholson and Michael Caine!
This is one of the better caper films that i have seen and like i said before, in my opinion it is definitely worth a watch!.
A terrific cast consisting of Jack Nicholson, Michael Caine, Judy Davis, Steven Dorff, and Jennifer Lopez star in "Blood & Wine," a 1996 film noir directed by Bob Rafelson.Nicholson is a wine dealer in a bad marriage with Judy Davis.
Devious wine dealer Jack Nicholson and career safe-cracker Michael Caine join forces to steal a priceless necklace in this very impressive, but somehow overlooked, masterpiece from the late-1990s.
After Dorff and mother Judy Davis accidentally take the merchandise, the film becomes a cat-and-mouse exercise between the crooks, the good guy and the girl with alterior motives (the ultra-hot Jennifer Lopez in her first truly excellent screen performance).
Similar to other films like "Heat" and "The Score", "Blood and Wine" uses intelligence to make a somewhat ho-hum story look like cinematic magic due to focused direction and outstanding casting.
All of the characters are complex and behave as one might expect in real life (i.e. no one is truly good or, for the most part, truly evil), the scenery is great (yes, including Jennifer Lopez), and the tried and true cliches are kept at a minimum.
Nicholson and Rafelson do it again with underrated film noir.
Except for the awful 1992 MAN TROUBLE, and the Monkees movie HEAD (which I never saw), every collaboration between Jack Nicholson and Bob Rafelson has been interesting and pretty good.
This may be a familiar tale about, as the tagline says, no honor among thieves, but Rafelson and the writers make this more character driven than you'd expect, except for the nanny played by Jennifer Lopez, who seems like just a plot device.
I wasn't a big fan of Stephen Dorff until his turn in I SHOT ANDY WARHOL, but he continues his good work from that film with his performance here.
It's worth mentioning John Colicos as the Greek petrol-station owner, whose apportation is pretty decent.If in 1981 Nicholson held his own very well with the other principal actors, he had a more difficult job with Jennifer López (who only has to appear on the screen to beat allcomers) and Michael Caine, who in `Blood and Wine' just was not up to his level in `The Cyder House Rules' (1999), also seen again very recently.
Really good stuff here: gripping story with superb directing.I have seen each of these films at least twice, and with confidence feel I can say that `A Few Good Men' is not only the better film, but also it is where Jack Nicholson redeems himself and comes up trumps  amen better directing and excellent camera-work; the ending scenes are highly memorable..
Director Bob Rafelson ("Five Easy Pieces" 1970, "Postman Always Rings Twice, The" 1981) teamed up once again with Jack Nicholson in the lead, with steady and enduring veterans Michael Caine and Judy Davis, along with a brilliant, faceted performance from Jennifer Lopez, and a gritty, sharp one from Stephen Dorff.
It would be hard for any film to fail that had Jack Nicholson, Michael Caine, and Judy Davis in its cast, and "Blood and Wine" certainly succeeded.
I like Jack Nicholson the most when he actually plays a character.
It proved to be a gem, a real solid effort by all involved, from the screenwriter, director, and actors.Jack Nicholson and Michael Caine give a fine performance as two-bit jewel thieves, but it's Jennifer Lopez that really blew me away as the mistress of Nicholson...
Jack Nicholson plays a wine dealer who plans to turn around his failing business by stealing diamonds from a rich client.
The story involves the theft of a multi-million-dollar necklace by thieves Jack Nicholson, who runs a wine shop in Miami, and Michael Caine, a safe cracker on parole.
Nicholson packs his suitcase intending to leave his wife, Judy Davis, and his stepson, Steven Dorff, and run off to New York with his innocent girl friend, Jennifer Lopez.
Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson supported each others careers in the 70s with movies like 'The king of Marvin gardens' and 'Five easy pieces'.
Rafelson's movies were very unique in their own way with Nicholson.
In 'Blood and wine' Nicholson is playing the father and son and again delivers another fantastic performance.
Later movies like 'U Turn' and 'Lost Highway' followed.SPOILERS AHEAD Nicholson plays a wine merchant who is having a bitter relationship with his wife (Davis) and son (Dorff).
This was the first time pairing of Micheal Caine and Jack Nicholson.
after that the thrill never ends while the robbers try to take it back.one of the best things about this film is, it doesn't create those movie heroes where you identify yourself with and show sympathy all the time.
with the exception of Victor played by Michael Caine who is portrayed as a real nuisance, everyone in the film is the good guy but unlucky with the life.i just loved this film..
Again, a stellar cast cannot help this miserable film.Jack Nicholson and Michael Caine are on a caper to steal a necklace.
At least, he got his wish by not dying in prison.Jennifer Lopez appears as the love interest of Nicholson and his stepson-the son of Davis.The films tends to become overly violent.
It blew me away,very demanding role played beautifully.And Nicholson and Caine were something else, great chemistry and top-notch acting.Judy Davis is great as always (love this actress).
Jennifer Lopez must be the luckiest bad actress in the world.I mean, 2 excellent film noirs (this and U-Turn) and working with the likes of Rafelson and Stone???
The movie has great pacing and tension.Michael Caine and Steven Dorff shine here, even more than Nicholson.
Loved the amorality of the movie (that's one of the reasons why I like the film noir-genre in the first place).
It starts out pretty good but once the necklace is taken by Nicholson's wife and found by his stepson (Dorff) to be real the thing lags.The night scenes and car sequences are boring at best--- I didn't like Dorff from the get go when he catches a shark on a beach and his interactions with Lopez for some reason reminded me highly of Titanic.