La gran estafa

"Yeah, I didn't figure you for Clint Eastwood." Well, yes, we have Walter Matthau here, and even though he supposedly didn’t understand what it was all about after three viewings, he approached the unusual role with honor and perspective. Don Siegel's bet on him, straightforwardness, occasional unpredictability, and all those now dinosaur-like attributes of the seventies (women as disposable, political incorrectness) will easily satisfy genre fans. In some aspects, there’s a resemblance to the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men. The American Southwest setting, mobile homes, money stolen from the wrong people from the top floors of skyscrapers, hiring ruthless killers... Although... this Molly may puff himself up, but he could at most clean the bomb for a slaughterhouse pistol with a rag compared to Chigurh. Or at least flip a coin to see if he or Varrick will open the car trunk at the end. (07.12.2022)

Charley Varrick is a delightful masterclass in storytelling, dealing with the titular bank robber whose latest job didn’t go according to plan and he thus has to rely on his experience to get away and cover his tracks. Like the seemingly apathetic protagonist who is actually a farsighted planner, the script also proceeds in relation to the viewers. With utter joy, we watch the individual casually stylish characters, around whom the film builds our expectations of how they will behave in a certain inevitable situation that is about to occur. We get the same pleasure from noticing how the film, as if incidentally, lays the groundwork for all of the upcoming twists and turns, or rather the resolution of snowballing peripetias. As a result, Charley Varrick is captivating as a good genre flick with light humour that kicks into high gear immediately, but runs so smoothly because it is well thought out to the smallest detail and precisely directed. (05.06.2022)

The opening robbery and the final heated car and plane chase are perfect scenes, but what happens for over an hour in between didn't entertain me as much. Yes, you can sense Don Siegel all over the place (and that's a good thing), but Charley Varrick should have been about twenty minutes shorter so I wouldn't have been bored. And one more criticism - although Walter Matthau is of course a good guy, I didn't really keep my fingers crossed for him this time, which both surprised and disappointed me. (10.07.2012)