Visual robbery

Written and directed by Neil Jordan, produced by Stephen Woolley, The Good Thief will be recognised by fans of Jean-Pierre Melville as a remake and updating of Bob le Flambeur, relocated to the Riviera from grey Deauville, and given a more violent mix of criminals planning a heist on the Monte Carlo casino.

It is probably a matter of taste (or age), but for my money, substituting the barely explicable mechanics of a raid — which is what every third Hollywood B-picture seems to do these days — for the mood that Melville wove around his retired French gangster, is cultural sacrilege.

In Bob le Flambeur, stoicism was the keynote; respect among men who had served their time — literally, in most cases — produced an absorbing feel of French underworld mores.

It may have been a literary construct — probably was — but those large, solid, impassive, Gabin-esque types invested it with samurai-like impressiveness.

Nick Nolte in The Good Thief is a raddled, dirty, druggy, gabby, boring wreck of a character and his criminal mates now include the exotica of a transvestite strong man, an S-and-M specialist and two identical Irish twins; Ralph Fiennes, uncredited, plays a crooked art dealer.

Perhaps the fact that Ocean's 11 got its heist plot on screen first made it essential to up the ante and turn this heist into such an insanely complex undertaking you would need a blueprint and a running commentary to follow it. Au revoir cool, 'allo confusion.

The Good Thief
Cert: cert15