Customer Reviews

Artworks

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In this sexy and captivating thriller about art heist, Virginia Madsen turned in a multilayered performance as a home alarm technician/aspiring artist with a desire to steal some of her clients' expensive paintings. Emma Becker(Madssen) is still grieving over the death of her baby and she is on the verge of getting a divorce from her husband who no longer connects to her. She meets Bret Rogers(Rick Rossovich), an art gallery owner with a history of art heist. They hit it off romantically, and they shared the same passion for art. They envy their wealthy clients, and decide to steal some paintings. With the help of Bret's assistant Cory Wells(Eddie Mills), a lock specialist, they successfully stole paintings by replacing the originals with fake ones. When Bret grew tired and worried about getting caught, Emma insisted on doing one more job before moving away to a wine country down south. At the same time, one of the house reported the crime when the painting was recognized as a fake. Will Emma's police chief father be able to help them get out of the situation and avoid any arrest?...

Virginia Madsen and Rick Rossovich had some very steamy scenes together, and they made a perfect couple. They had plenty of romantic chemistry. The story and characters are well written, while the film is not keen on elaborate scenes of the stealing.

While it's easy for me to get caught up in Virginia Madsen's ability to lend her understated, sometimes breathtaking talents to even the most mediocre of roles (think HIGHLANDER 2), I still had trouble enjoying ARTWORKS. Though the cinematography is first-rate and the acting pretty decent among the cast, something falls short.

Maybe it's the rather blah writing or the lack of motivation and background on the characters of Bret Rogers and Cory Wells. It also could be the fact that all the chemistry in the world still doesn't really explain why Emma Becker and Bret fall in love (Do we really even care?)

The main reason I stuck with this "art heist movie trying to be an independent film" was because I could relate to the aching appreciation for art Virginia Madsen so eloquently conveys through her portrayal of Emma Becker. Her quiet suffering at the loss of her newborn baby can only be alleviated through painting and acquiring, unfortunately through illegal means, artwork that others take for granted.

"Artworks" might have worked better if the writers could have made us care more about the action scenes. ("Action" is probably too generous a word since each art theft seems to have been phoned in, rather than played with any enthusiasm that reflects the characters' passion for art.)

It's true I'm giving this movie three stars, but I would like to give the cat who appears during one particularly passionless scene five stars for providing one of "Artwork"'s few suspenseful moments:).

I had "The Thomas Crowne Affair" in hand when I wondered if there might be a similar movie I hadn't yet seen. "Artworks" was an obvious choice.

It proved entertaining and interesting enough - particularly its premise. But the whole thing had a "made for TV" feel to it - the cinematography, script, and the acting (which may have just been a result of the writing - hard to tell).

I can only imagine how good this good-guy heist movie could have been had it had the cinematic mood and suspenseful style of "The Thomas Crowne Affair" or the chic style and crisp dialogue of "Ocean's 11".

I won't repeat the story line since others have done it, but I have to say this movie has all the feel of a high school film project. Well, maybe I'm overstating it, but it is as amateurish a production as I've ever seen. Virginia Madsen is excellent and plays the role as the sexy, beautiful art thief quite well, but Rick Rossovich is awful. I have to respectfully disagree with the first reviewer who characterized him and his performance as "less like an experienced actor." No, he seems like someone who has never acted before. His emotions range all the way from A to B, and his voice never changes pitch or volume in the entire flick.

By the way, the jazz on the soundtrack is terrific.

So, Virginia Madsen and the soundtrack get five stars. Everyone else and the movie get one because I think that the least you can give.

Save your money.

Jim Amatulli's first feature is "Artworks." Virginia Madsen plays artist Emma Becker whose marriage is breaking up after the loss of a baby. This film came a couple years before Madsen's breakthrough Oscar-nominated film in 2004, "Sideways." For that film, Madsen won Best Supporting Awards from the Broadcast Film Critics Association, Chicago, Toronto & Los Angeles Film Critics Associations and New York & San Francisco Film Circles. For "Artworks" she was not nominated. However, her performance is a good one, strong on the subtleties of a marriage breaking up and a woman who wants more from life. What did not play well for me is how the daughter of the police chief suddenly decides to break the law. It runs counter to the values we assume she has. She seemed to love her father; so she wasn't rebelling against him. This part of the film didn't work for me. Rick Rossovich plays the gallery owner Bret Rogers who falls for Emma. Rossovich appeared in classic films like "Roxanne," "Top Gun" and the Jane Fonda film "The Morning After." In "Artworks" he seems less like an experienced actor, anchored with dialogue that seems stiff and lacks believability. The muted excitement of the film comes in the love relationship. Eddie Mills who has appeared on numerous TV shows such as "Without a Trace," "House," Crossing Jordan" & "Touched by an Angel" plays Cory Wells who can forge paintings and works at the gallery. His supporting performance is the most effective in the film. The moral of the film appears to be that crime pays as long as you do a year in prison. If you did the year in prison, then you've paid for your crime and go ahead and enjoy the profits from the rest of your heists in some exotic locale. With major plot and character flaws, "Artworks" is interesting enough for an evening when you don't have anything better to do. Enjoy!

Just a simple textbook crime spree by thrill-seeking, amateur kleptomaniacs. Which ends in the expected. Lackluster script that moves waaay too slowly; not many ideas. The lady's sexy, and for gay or female viewers, the men are not bad either, but otherwise? Teh!

The film has to do with that question. In the actual times, art's world has trivialized by itself; the love and the passion for an artwork has even limited in all its aspects. The inner commitment of the artist has been distorted and probably due the future is considered not just a new day but the extension of the present . The artist not only must show the horror , the pain, the pity and the sorrow, but having a major scope and intend to express the possibility of living in other worlds inside this one. The art is possibly precisely due the world is imperfect, in a perfect world the art would not have any sense. In the other hand, some collectors art is immersed in a real vertigo, a kind of mirror hall and a huge market gallery.

Two outsiders will meet and decide to fake artworks in the name of ... It is very easy to remind a crucial film of that talented director Alan Rudolph with the Moderns on the early eighties which dealt with a similar issue.

Virginia Madsen loads the screen with her mysterious beauty and Rossovich makes an adequate portrait of the cold blood brain master in this interesting picture. Certain commercial concessions don't weak the final intentions of the script, even the resolution is not convincing at all.