Product Details

• Actors: Anjelica Huston, John Cusack, Annette Bening, Jan Munroe, Robert Weems
• Directors: Stephen Frears
• Writers: Donald E. Westlake, Jim Thompson
• Producers: Barbara De Fina, Jim Painter, Martin Scorsese, Peggy Rajski, Robert A. Harris
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Hbo Home Video
• VHS Release Date: March 28, 1995
• Run Time: 110 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302017718
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #711,325 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Annette Bening twists like a mink on a leash through Stephen Frears's adaptation of Jim Thompson's novel. This may be the perfect trope for the moral hysteria that coils around a mother, her son, and his girlfriend in this slender but highly pleasurable neo-noir. Small in effect and local in scope, the film is about small-fry, attractive, bloodless con artists who view the world as neatly split between ropers and suckers, grifters and squares. "Grifter's got an irresistible urge to beat a guy that's wise," an old-timer tells Roy (John Cusack). And yet the three characters here--played by Angelica Huston, Cusack, and Bening--only beat the innocent: Lilly (Huston) gigs at the track for a mobster named Bobo, putting wads of cash on long-shot horses to even out the odds. Roy, her son, swindles citizens by dimes and degrees, flashing twenties at bars then paying for his beer with tens. His girlfriend, Myra (Bening), is hustling herself, her salad days as a long-con roper behind her. Theirs is a world of gut punches and smart lines, and the adrenaline these cheats and chiselers live by is palpable onscreen. But a larger canvas? Maybe it's there as a parallel universe. "What do you sell again?" Myra asks Roy, the matchbook salesman. "Self-confidence," he says, a wry allusion to the confidence game all three of them are playing. The movie boasts dazzling turns by Bening, Cusack, and especially Huston, whose mère fatale breaks new ground for noir. --Lyall Bush

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ELEVATOR TO HELL, April 29, 2000

By 

Daniel S. "Daniel" (Geneva, Switzerland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Grifters (DVD)

Produced by Martin Scorsese and directed by Stephen Frears, THE GRIFTERS is a winner. With three top actors, Anjelica Huston, Annette Bening and John Cusack, Frears invites us to a non-stop ride to hell.

Caught between his mother and his girl-friend, John Cusack will have a hard time to survive and become a man. You can almost touch the hate those two women feel for each other. Their last encounter is really a scene you will remember : set in Phoenix, in a motel, in a subtle variation of PSYCHO's first murder, it is a moment of great cinema.

Cusack is outstanding as the gentle grifter, Frear's cinematography is first class and Anjelica has never been so devilish. No doubt about it, THE GRIFTERS is a masterpiece of the film noir genre.

A DVD that bleeds.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice Special Edition of a great movie, January 6, 2003

By 

TheBandit (SEA-TAC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Grifters (Miramax Collector's Series) (DVD)

A fantastic movie about con artists. The tone of this movie is perfect: utterly unsentimental, deadpan, cool and calculated. Great score, great performances (not just the three leads, there are tons of bit parts that are very memorable), great dialogue. The pacing is snappy. I'm not going to say the movie is flawless, but honestly I can't think of anything particularly negative to say about it.

The DVD is a modest collector's edition. Some may say the extra features are a bit spare, but what is here is very useful and informative. The commentary track is consistantly listenable. There are four participants: the director, the screenwriter, and stars Cusack and Huston. The four were recorded separately and edited together seamlessly to make an entertaining and insightful track. Also here are two short but well-made featurettes, one covers the making of the film and the other sheds some light on the work of the author who wrote the book upon which the film is based.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb, March 24, 2001

By 

J. Center (Wilmington, DE United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Grifters (DVD)

I've never been a John Cusack fan, but he's utterly riveting in the role of a coming-of-age grifter caught between two indelible women. Annette Bening, at least here, is a pure force of nature, a sexy tsunami overwhelming everything in her path. And Anjelica Huston??? Her entire career has been one splendid performance after another, and this is one of her finest. You simply cannot take your eyes off her. The interaction of these three is one of the best examples of ensemble acting outside of an Altman film. And the little subtleties around these three -- from the brilliant set piece of the orange scene to the almost-identical dresses worn by Lily and Myra to Elmer Bernstein's moody score -- make The Grifters a compelling experience. The only disappointment is that the CD has NO extras at all, but you could certainly make the case that this is a movie that can stand completely on its own.