Thieves Review
Thieves was written by (and based on a play by) Herb_Gardner, a writer who can be enormously funny but whose characters and plots often feel contrived and artificial. In Thieves, that contrivance and artificiality are in full bloom, but the humor withers on the vine. There are some good moments, most of them resulting from quirky incidences involving minor characters, such as an eternally sleeping doorman who turns out to be dead; indeed, the supporting characters as a whole come of better than the leads who are the backbone of the piece. That's because Gardner has a gift for sketching in an interesting character but not fleshing it out, which works when a character only has a few minutes of screen time, but not when he or she dominates the movie. This is especially true of Sally, the character played by Marlo_Thomas, who is supposed to be one of those zany free-spirited people whose love of life and warm humanity make them adorable and appealing. Thomas tries hard, but Sally is simply unbelievable and annoying. At least the actress gives her some spark; Charles_Grodin is deadly dull as her dull opposite number. Matters aren't helped by the uninspired direction of John_Berry and Albert_T._Viola. As mentioned, the supporting players are worth a glance, especially Hector_Elizondo, but most of Thieves is disappointing. Craig Butler, Rovi
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