Debate X NZIFF # 13: The Mastermind

DEBATE X NZIFF | REVIEW | WEB EXCLUSIVE

Written by Ricky Lai (he/him) | @rickylaitheokperson | Contributing Columnist

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There are foolproof plans, and then there are just foolish plans. Josh O’Connor plays James, an art thief in 1970s Massachusetts — ‘the mastermind’, he’s eventually accused of being by sleuths on his trail. This title becomes funnier as he cluelessly drifts through wintery Boston, and is a punchline by the end. Director Kelly Reichardt takes patient care for each step of the sting — we watch him in a barn at night, painstakingly disassembling a crate of paintings, carrying them up a ladder piece by piece, then reassembling them — so it’s hilarious to watch him return home and discover none of it was worth the effort. Michel from ‘Pickpocket’, he is not. Some mastermind.

This isn’t Reichardt’s first heist film. Her earlier ‘Night Moves’ (2013) steeped with a trio of radical environmentalists planning to blow up a dam; their moves were careful; discreet; quivering under guilty conscience. ‘The Mastermind’ is amusing because its heist, claiming several abstract paintings of debatable value in a suburban museum, is carried out by bumbling idiots. Yet despite the chummy cast — John Magaro and Matthew Maher steal the show as per — I couldn’t buy into James’ nonsensical lack of motive, tossing his decent life aside for a half-baked caper. I couldn’t swat the question away; just what did this charlatan expect?

James is a bad partner to Alana Haim — I could never! — and an even worse father, but it’s interesting to see him contrast against the tides of the Vietnam War he’s oblivious to, given one off-handedly sad detail: On an overnight bus trip, a soldier is sitting with his wife and kid; he has departed them by sunrise. The remaining political backdrop — protesting hippies, Black Power posters — seem more painted-on, but it’s poignant to see James, an opportunist like Barry Lyndon before his time, attempt to blend into his surroundings then succeed, ultimately, in a way he deserves but doesn’t see coming.