What I love about all of Michael Mann's movies is the mood, the sense of cool. Even if you have no idea what's going on, you always get a feeling of just how awesome the people you're watching are. The second quality is the acting--Mann consistently manages to bring out the best in his actors. That's all this movie has. Oh, and good music, although it's heavily dated with its 80's techno synth rock.The movie attempts to combine heist movie with family drama. It doesn't work because the tension is lost with the dramatic punctuations and the drama never gets fully explored because the heist elements remove a sense of realism. The plot is convoluted and unclear; you have to pay extremely close attention to the dialogue to know what's going on. Even then, you might still have trouble because a lot of the time there are no establishing shots (in the adoption agency, for example). The editing is awful. Scenes go on for way too long, often without introduction and ending suddenly. The sound work is even worse; it reminded me of my own movies. The dialogue is hard to understand as a result, which makes the plot confusing as well. And that's not something you want in a professionally-produced feature film.
IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0083190/
