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Review #174 of 365
Film: Stolen [NR] 90 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $12
Where Viewed: Starz FilmCenter, Denver, CO
When 1st Seen: 5 July 2006
Time: 8:00 p.m.
Review Dedicated to: Joshua M. of Santa Barbara, CA
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Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
Did you enjoy the films Entrapment or The Thomas Crown Affair? Well, Director Rebecca Dreyfus has done you a favor and delivered an intriguing little documentary about the real thing—America's largest fine art heist ever. The site was the Isabella S. Gardner Museum in Boston, MA. On St. Patrick's Day, while all of Boston was celebrating its Irish heritage, a couple of phoney Boston policemen entered the museum and stole 13 paintings including Vermeer's "The Concert". In modern times, never before had anyone been so brazen as to steal so many paintings from one museum at the same time. The theft, alas, still remains unsolved despite the involvement of one of the greatest art thief detectives of all time, Harold J. Smith. What makes this documentary more appealing that average is that it is at once about so much more than the heist itself. It is a story about the remarkable Harold Smith who, bearing an uncanny resemblance to Magrite's "The Son of Man", and battling skin cancer for more than 20 years, seems at first to be an unlikely protagonist for the story.
Yet, in no time, you will realize that he is the one for the job and the movie. The film is also about Isabella Gardner herself. The film captures the wealthy Boston woman who, after the death of her two-year old son, set about amassing one of the world's most valuable private art collections using her European contact, Bernard Berenson. Berenson and Gardner come to life in the film via letters they exchanged in the late 1800s early 1900s as read in the film by Campbell Scott and Blythe Danner. The film documents approximately the last two years of Smith's work to relocate and return the paintings to the museum. Unfortunately, the chap passed away before he could realize a satisfying end, despite even a $5 million reward, to one of the most mysterious unsolved art heists ever known.
"While the cinematography and filming left something to be desired, the story is as fun and fascinating to watch as most any episode of CSI…."
While the cinematography and filming left something to be desired, the story is as fun and fascinating to watch as most any episode of CSI, and the Director worked hard to make the film from a fish-eye level as if you were watching the real thing unfold before your eyes. Harold J. Smith is a character in his own rights, full of great quotations to live life by and an obvious zest for his job and life at the ripe old age of 75. I thoroughly enjoyed the film, and I think it would make excellent fodder for a major motion picture with Patrick Stewart as the New York native Mr. Smith, Angelina Jolie as Isabella Gardner, and Colin Farrel as Bernard Berenson. A formidable cast, a classic tale of intrigue and mystery, and all the makings of an awesome Hollywood thriller. Write your movie studio executives and help bring this story to the masses.
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Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
Stolen [DVD] (2005)
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Stolen (2006) Review-lite [150-word cap]
Did you enjoy The Thomas Crown Affair? Well, Director Rebecca Dreyfus delivers an intriguing documentary about the real thing—America's largest fine art heist ever. The site was the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston. On St. Patrick's Day, while all of Boston was celebrating its Irish heritage, a couple of phoney Boston policemen entered the museum and stole 13 paintings including Vermeer's "The Concert". The theft, alas, still remains unsolved despite the involvement of one of the greatest art thief detectives of all time, Harold J. Smith. The film is also about Isabella Gardner herself, capturing the wealthy Boston woman who, after the death of her two-year old son, set about amassing one of the world's most valuable private art collections using her European contact, Bernard Berenson. While the cinematography and filming left something to be desired, the story is as fun and fascinating to watch as any episode of CSI.
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