one never quite knows what one is going to get with a mamet film . his american buffalo is a set-bound piece that has very little plot . sometimes he will tell a story that really moves . heist is mamet <POS> doing his most entertaining work </POS> . unlike his the spanish prisoner , <POS> there are no lapses in credibility </POS> . heist is probably <POS> the best mamet thriller </POS> since house of games . it is the kind of plot with which you are never sure who will double-cross whom , and frequently it is mamet double-crossing the viewer . watching the film's team getting around security the viewer is frequently asking himself either " what the heck are they doing ? " or " why didn't anybody think of that before ? " appropriately enough heist opens with <POS> a very clever jewelry store job . it is so clever that one wonders if mamet really thinks up all these ideas himself or if he has help from professional magician and con expert </POS> ricky jay , now a regular actor in mamet films . this is a robbery that works like a well-oiled machine . there is just one problem and it is enough to get joe moore ( played by gene hackman ) filmed on a security camera . now joe has to get out of the business . it was coming time anyway . joe's team including bobby blane ( delroy lindo ) , fran moor ( rebecca pidgeon ) , and pinky pincus ( ricky jay ) is going to split up and go separate ways . but crime boss bergman ( danny devito ) is pulling the strings and he says that joe and his people have to manage one more robbery . and he has to take along a young kid , the short- fused jimmy silk ( sam rockwell ) . immediately it is obvious that there is more going on than meets the eye . much of <POS> what distinguishes heist is mamet's dialog . remarkably it serves a double purpose </POS> . the robbery team sounds at once very professional and at the same time it has mamet's <POS> special feel for dialog </POS> . hackman has lines like " everybody needs money . that's why they call it money . " mamet's <POS> timing is perfect in the direction </POS> but terrible in the production . the plot is coincidentally a lot like the plot of the recent the score , which is , in fact , a very similar story . both are <POS> good films </POS> , perhaps for some of the same reasons . but at least on a high level they are much the same story . the other problem with the timing of heist is that it involves airport security and clever ways to get around them . i saw the film at the toronto international film festival on september 12 , 2001 . that made the subject matter just a little too timely . my understanding is that the release will be delayed . my biggest problem with the film is that rebecca pidgeon's acting at times seems very poor . it is some kind of mamet trademark i do not understand to have women talk without inflection , as if they are just reading the words for the first time . it is an irritation and distracts us from what is <POS> otherwise a very good thriller </POS> . it is one i rate an 8 on the 0 to 10 scale and a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale .
