movies

Obviously, no one associated with this film (I refuse to perpetuate its ridiculous title) read or even remotely understood "Cogan's Trade," a work that John Gregory Dunne and others have termed "the perfect crime novel." The grievous casting of the flimsy-looking Pitt as the darkest assassin on the East Coast aside, there are many other grievous choices. First, changing the time frame from 1974 to 2008 obliterates the Watergate echoes Higgins intended. (It is Trattman's cover-up, not his crime, that brings him great woe.) Second, changing the location to New Orleans is dumb; Higgins and his tales are Bostonian to the core. Third, I have heard no mention of the moronic dog thefts that draw Russell and Frankie into the mess. This parallel plot is not only key to the plot of "Cogan's Trade": it is also the godfather of numerous best-selling novels by Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiassen. You know: the plot where two idiots who, unaware that they are idiots, talk themselves via cryptic into a scheme that cannot help but lead to their doom. The late George V. Higgins is deserving of much better.

I could not disagree with you more on your review. This movie was a triumph, cinematically, cereberally, and acting wise, it was one of the best crime films in a long time. Though it's political and though-provoking messages were pounded in from the onset all to way to the end, they were delivered in original and intellectual fashion extremely satisfying and brought current to our times. Wonderful, original take on a genre that needs a break from norm once in a while. I will see it again to listen to the dialouge once more and squeeze out whatever intent I may have been missed while mulling over the impeccable deliveries the first time around!!

I think the reviewer missed the bigger picture of the movie. I found this to be a wonderful allegory about the 2008 financial crisis. From the comparison of the criminal world to the financial world, I found this to be a very satisfying movie. You could criticize the movie as being very dark, but so was the crash of 2008.