The Opportunists
| The Opportunists | |
|---|---|
 Official poster | |
| Directed by | Myles Connell |
| Produced by |
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| Written by | Myles Connell |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Kurt Hoffman |
| Cinematography | Teodoro Maniaci |
| Edited by | Andy Keir |
Production company |
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| Distributed by | First Look International |
Release dates |
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Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | |
| Language |
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| Box office | $584,054[1] |
The Opportunists is a 2000 British-American crime drama film, written and directed by Myles Connell, and starring Christopher Walken, Cyndi Lauper, Donal Logue, and Vera Farmiga. The film takes place in the urban setting of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, in New York City. It was released in United States theaters on August 11, 2000.
Plot
The film's protagonist is Victor "Vic" Kelly (Christopher Walken), a struggling auto mechanic with a safe-cracking past and a lot of debt. When a supposed cousin from Ireland visits Vic, the alleged cousin sabotages one of Vic's auto repair jobs, to ensure Vic's desperation and participation in the robbery scheme introduced to Vic by neighborhood resident Pat (Donal Logue).
Vic is too stubbornly proud to accept a loan from his bar-owner girlfriend Sally (Cyndi Lauper), who offers Vic money that she was otherwise planning to use to renovate and remodel her neighborhood bar. Vic agrees to the robbery scheme, and goes to the armored courier service posing as a potential customer.
Given a view of the facility, including being shown the triple combination-lock vault, Vic then goes to work on practicing his safecracking skills for the big day. The auto mechanic takes one last shot at the lucrative robbery with his Irish cohort to pay off his debts. We find out the cousin is not really a cousin. Vic becomes locked in the vault, while the fake cousin takes a bag of cash and makes his escape from the scene.
The Irish cohort has a change of heart and returns with a bag of cash taken from Vic at the scene at the crime. Vic can now afford to keep his elderly aunt in her retirement home. There's enough money for Vic to be a good guy and give a cut to the two guards, who were in on the robbery with Vic, and had gotten fired. And Vic buys a juke box as a gift for his girlfriend's remodeled bar.
A second bag of cash is taken from the vault by the armoured-courrier service owner, who will report all the cash missing, and make false insurance and IRS claims. To protect his own scheme, the owner refuses to press charges against Vic. Vic finally experiences a bit of good luck for once in his life. The movie ends with Vic walking back to his girlfriend.
Cast
- Christopher Walken as Victor "Vic" Kelly
- Peter McDonald as Mikey Lawler
- Donal Logue as Pat Duffy
- Vera Farmiga as Miriam Kelly
- John Ortiz as Ismael Espinoza
- Tom Noonan as Mort Stein
- Cyndi Lauper as Sally Mahon
Reception
Box office
It its opening weekend in the United States, The Opportunists made $46,967 from 5 theaters, giving a per theater average of $9,393.[2] The film made a further $537,087 for a total domestic gross of $584,054.[1]
Critical response
The Opportunists received mostly positive reviews from film critics. On Metacritic, the film currently holds a 71 rating based on 24 critical reviews.[3] Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a weighted average of 52% based on 27 reviews.[4] Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times wrote: "Myles Connell, who wrote and directed the picture, gives it the sleepy pace of a late fall day when the biggest event turns out to be waiting to see if the sun will break through the gray haze. The film has the ambience of a real neighborhood, but Mr. Connell can't seem to give it substance. Sometimes it seems to be fading away in front of your eyes."[5]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote: "Crime movies always seem to have neat endings. There's a chase or a shootout, a trial or a confession. "The Opportunists" is messier than that. It is less a matter of the big payoff than the daily struggle. In the movies, most safecrackers are egotistical geniuses who do it for the gratification. In life, I imagine they're more like Victor Kelly, and they're in it for the money. Not much money at that."[6] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly, gave a mixed review, writing: "The Opportunists is skillfully made, yet the film would have been better if it had tapped a bit of that Walken madness to bust out of its drab, poky little-people symmetries."[7]
Accolades
| Year | Award | Category | Recipient | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Casting Society of America | Best Casting for a Feature Film – Independent | Kathleen Chopin | Nominated |
| Gotham Award | Open Palm Award | Myles Connell | Nominated |
References
- 1 2 "The Opportunists (2000)". Box Office Mojo.
- ↑ "The Opportunists (2000) – Box Office / Business". IMDb.
- ↑ "The Opportunists Reviews". Metacritic.
- ↑ "The Opportunists (2000)". Rotten Tomatoes.
- ↑ "The Opportunists (2000) Film Review; No More Mr. Regular Citizen: It's Back to the Bad Old Days". The New York Times. August 11, 2000.
- ↑ "The Opportunists Movie Review (2000)". Roger Ebert. August 11, 2000.
- ↑ "The Opportunists Review". Entertainment Weekly. August 18, 2000.
External links
- The Opportunists at the Internet Movie Database
- The Opportunists at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Opportunists at Metacritic