thomas4cinema

Hooker (Robert Redford) is a happy little crook, earning his bucks with simple cons. When he happens to cheat the local betting mafia out of some dollars, they send their avengers, killing Hooker’s partner, and looking for him. He teams up with Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman) and plans the Big Con, earning them enough cash to disappear. A betting shop, a Wire and a local banker need to be brought together.
Legendary music and legendary acting. It is the slyness of Newman, the young energy of Redford, but also that fact that even those incredibly cool characters get the chance to feel desperate and lonely (such as when Hooker turns up late at the bar girl’s door). The script is cleverly twisted, but not so much that you would lose track or interest, performing the art of making me feel very smart by being able to follow (and I don’t follow easily – I still don’t know what Transformers really was about). No need to put this film in any context of the time when it was made, it just stands solid as a rock, a great piece of movie-making.