Score, The (2001)

2 out of 4

Starring: Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, Marlon Brando, Angela Bassett

Director: Frank Oz

Time: 120 mins

The Score features a powerhouse cast - Academy Award winners Robert De Niro and Marlon Brando, and Academy Award nominees Edward Norton and Angela Bassett. Like Heat (1995), another heist movie that featured an exceptional cast (including De Niro), The Score is about an aging thief who can't resist the urge to perform one last job. But that's where the similarities end. Whereas Heat, even with its formidable length, managed to hold the audience's attention with its skilfully blended action, story and character development, The Score meanders along until a finale that is well-filmed yet still fails to satisfy. It's not really the actors' fault - the script just doesn't have any fireworks.

Nick Wells (De Niro) is a nightclub owner in Montreal who just happens to be a master thief. He lives by the doctrine of never doing a job in one's hometown, so when local heavy Max Baron (Brando) offers him an opportunity to steal a priceless sceptre from the Montreal Customs House, Nick declines. The lure of a big payoff draws him back in, however, and he is partnered with Jackie Teller (Norton), who works at the Customs House in disguise and has been scouting out the place. Various crises and incidents threaten to pull Nick off the job, including his grilfriend's (Bassett) plea to give it away, but the carrot dangled in front of him is just too tempting.

While Heat was equally concerned about one last score, it also took the time to focus on the lives of the thieves, the policeman on their tail, and their respective families. This is where The Score falls over. De Niro's character is developed enough for us to know the reasons why he takes on one last job, but Norton's motivations are fairly obscure. There is nothing revealed about his background, which makes some of his later actions unconvincing. And Angela Bassett's character is in so little of the film and of so little use one wonders why she was even in the script in the first place! Compare again to Heat, which had three strong, fully developed female characters (admittedly a rarity for a crime film). The actual heist sequence, once we get there, shows some ingenuity and even a semblance of suspense, but the ambiguous attachment we have with Norton and, to a lesser extent, De Niro, keeps us from becoming too excited.

The acting is overall quite good, though one expects more fireworks from such a cast than what actually transpires. De Niro is in one of his more contemplative roles - not as flashy as his Al Capone in The Untouchables or the pink-suited Sam Rothstein in Casino, but not as sleepy as he was in Jackie Brown, either. There is a grittiness in De Niro here, and he does well to engender some sympathy for someone who is, after all, a criminal. Norton, one of the best young actors today, is fine as the young partner, but he's not as impressive as he was in films like The People Vs Larry Flynt or even the cardshark in Rounders. This is definitely a fault of the script, as Norton is given little to work with. The legendary (and sometimes infamous) Brando is an imposing presence, both physically and figuratively, but he's only in a handful of scenes. It's actually intriguing to see the two actors (Brando and De Niro) who each won an Oscar for playing the same character (in The Godfather and its immediate sequel - the only time this has occurred, I believe) playing off each other. Bassett, the lone female in the film, is adequate, but again, the question must be asked - why was she even there?

Director Frank Oz is more well-known as the voice of Miss Piggy in the Muppets ensemble, as well as the man behind comedies like Bowfinger and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. The Score is a relatively serious foray for him, and while he does show some capability in the heist scenes, it may be better if he left crime dramas to other directors, or at least until he has a better script to work with. The Score is never boring to watch, given the talent that's up on the screen, but in the end it has to be labelled a disappointment.

(c) Joe Wong (15 July 2001)