"The Score" Rated R
****/*****
The cast assembled for the score was said to be the best of three generations of actors. I would have to agree. Robert DeNiro and Edward Norton have an acting showdown as Marlon Brando watches from a safe distance; because it gets ugly.
DeNiro plays an aging thief itching to retire to his girlfriend Angela Bassett. DeNiro is lured into one last job by his "boss" played by Marlon Brando. The last job is to steal a French septer that was found hidden in a piano leg in the Montreal customs building in Nick's hometown. By doing this job, Nick would be breaking his own rule: never rob where you live. Nick is introduced to a man on the inside played by Edward Norton. He pretends to be retarded so he can easily get a job as a janitor and secretly get information about the building plans and storage room where the scepter is located. More about the heist is revealed as the movie moves along.
That is one of the best parts of the movie. Director Frank Oz does a great job of telling us just what we need to know just when we need to know it. That helps to build the suspense of the heist and also of the relationship between DeNiro's and Norton's characters. The acting by all three generations is great. I'd say in the action showdown, it concludes as a stalemate. If your a fan of perfectly timed and executed heist movies, see this one.
