david mamet is a good director . mamet's an even better screenwriter and playwright . the guy's authored some of the best film and theatre works in the past decade -- the verdict , house of games , wag the dog , state and main , and the guy even won a pulitzer prize for his play glengarry glen ross . with that said , it's such a shame that his latest crime caper , heist , falls apart by employing too many of the well-known devices of a mamet production -- double-crossing femmes fatale , overtly memorable characters , and deceptive plot lines . but movies like the spanish prisoner , things change , and the winslow boy display a roundness to mamet's innate abilities . and it's almost a crime to witness how all of that goes awry in his latest film , heist . heist twists and turns along the road of documenting the shady life of career jewel thief joe moore ( gene hackman ) and his posse of thieves -- bobby blane ( delroy lindo ) and don " pinky " pincus ( ricky jay ) . during a raid on a jewelry store , moore ends up with his mug on the surveillance cameras and he goes on the lam from the local marshals . he decides to get out of dodge with his recent bride fran ( rebecca pidgeon , looking like a cross between sharon stone and joan crawford ) , sailing into the sunset on his yacht . the only problem is that his fence bergman ( danny devito ) has set up a big score -- the swiss job -- which he wants done so badly he holds joe's cut of the jewelry heist on layaway until the swiss job is done . to ensure his faithful hound brings the goods home intact , bergman tosses his nephew jimmy silk ( sam rockwell ) into joe's crew for observation purposes . things become complicated when joe's wife has an affair with jimmy , the swiss job turns sour , devito starts acting like his character from ruthless people , and ricky jay starts looking for the exit to this mess of a film . a mamet production usually derives its success from a solid emotional attachment to its characters -- usually they've been wronged and are seeking justice or absolution . the naïve scientist from the spanish prisoner or the curious psychologist from house of games were just decent people we recognize in our everyday lives . when those people get royally screwed over , its human nature to desire retribution . heist lacks any such emotional attachment . of greater concern is the recycling of plot points from ronin , which mamet also wrote and which deals with a similar plot involving double-crossing thieves on the run . to save the day , though , heist carries some of the best actors working today . devito , lindo , and hackman chew up and spit out the scenery around them . sam rockwell -- who usually plays naïve and jovial characters in movies like galaxy quest -- plays silk as cold , manipulative , and downright spooky . but the main problem with heist is how surprisingly predictable the story is . unlike the similar yet far superior the score , there's never any surprise during heist's twisting . mamet has just become lazy with this one . everything about the film looks great , but there's nothing at all underneath . reviewed as part of our coverage of the 24th annual mill valley film festival . 
