The Good Thief is a 2002 crime thriller film written and directed by Neil Jordan. It is a remake of the French film Bob le flambeur (1955) by Jean-Pierre Melville. The film, shot in both Monaco and Nice, France, follows a heroin-addicted retired thief through the setup and completion of one last job.

The Good Thief
Original movie poster
Directed byNeil Jordan
Written byNeil Jordan
Based onBob le flambeur
by Jean-Pierre Melville
Auguste Le Breton
Produced bySeaton McLean
John Wells
Stephen Woolley
Neil Jordan
StarringNick Nolte
Emir Kusturica
Nutsa Kukhianidze
CinematographyChris Menges
Edited byTony Lawson
Music byElliot Goldenthal
Production
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Distributed byMomentum Pictures (United Kingdom and Ireland)[1]
TFM Distribution (France)[2]
Release dates
  • 6 September 2002 (2002-09-06) (Toronto)
  • 28 February 2003 (2003-02-28) (Ireland)
  • 7 March 2003 (2003-03-07) (United Kingdom)
  • 4 April 2003 (2003-04-04) (United States)
  • 11 April 2003 (2003-04-11) (Canada)
Running time
108 minutes
CountriesUnited Kingdom
France
Ireland
LanguageEnglish
Budget$30 million[3]
Box office$5,756,945[3]

Cast

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Reception

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The film received mostly positive reviews. Critic Roger Ebert notes of Nolte: "it is clear, that he was born to play Bob. It is one of those performances that flows unhindered from an actor's deepest instincts."[4]

Reviewer Pam Grady, writing for Reel.com, also praised the film: "The Good Thief has many virtues, beginning with the sheer wit of Jordan's screenplay and Chris Menges's neon-saturated cinematography that renders Nice both beautiful and sinister, trapping the characters in the glare of its lights. The heist itself is a complicated affair — Jordan took Melville's original idea and added a distinctly 21st-century twist — and all the more satisfying for it."[5]

The film holds a 77% 'fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 146 reviews, and an average rating of 6.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Bolstered by Nolte's strong performance, The Good Thief brims with seductive style."[6] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[7]

Soundtrack

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The film's score was composed by Elliot Goldenthal.

References

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  1. ^ "The Good Thief (2002)". BBFC. Archived from the original on 24 August 2021. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  2. ^ "The Good Thief (2003)". UniFrance. Archived from the original on 24 August 2021. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  3. ^ a b The Good Thief at Box Office Mojo
  4. ^ "The Good Thief". RogerEbert.com. Ebert Digital LLC. 11 April 2003. Archived from the original on 3 June 2013. Retrieved 31 December 2010.
  5. ^ "The Good Thief (2002)". Reel.com. 9 May 2005. Archived from the original on 9 May 2005. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
  6. ^ "The Good Thief". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. 16 April 2003. Archived from the original on 23 May 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2021.  
  7. ^ The Good Thief at Metacritic  
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