Stolen Thoughts

By RICHARD SCHICKEL

THIEF

Directed and Written

by Michael Mann

All right, Frank (James Caan) is good at his craft. And Thief deserves credit for presenting a hard, cool look at how the ancient art of safecracking has adapted itself to the latest advances in electronics and metallurgy. But if Frank is too smart ever to get caught in the act, the fuzz might consider busting Michael Mann's debut film for loitering with intent to talk existential philosophy at the scene of the crime.

This talented young writer-director (who won an Emmy with his gritty TV movie The Jericho Mile) has a gift for action and street-snarl dialogue. But he is fatally drawn to making big statements. And repeating them. And acting them out --to make sure his point has penetrated the most thickly armored brain in the house. But all he really has to say is that golden oldie, beloved by people trying to tart up adventure stories: the one about a man having to get down to nothing, to look into the abyss of nonbeing, if he is going to find the perfect freedom required to ply dangerous trades fearlessly.

Mann finds ways of translating these existential thoughts into the argot of the Chicago ex-con that are reasonably believable; and James Caan finds ways of saying them without choking. Indeed, at the center of the film there is a fine scene when Frank proposes to Jessie (Tuesday Weld), a coffee-shop cashier astonished to have an offer of marriage on her first date with the guy from the back booth, and to find out what he actually does for a living. Here Mann gets a subtler message across, in a scene with comedy, originality and dramatic power as played by two good actors. The bloodbaths that follow are flashy but, empty exercises, pseudotragic searchings for a big finish. They make one tired and edgy--and dissipate the promise that has energized much of Thief. --By Richard Schickel

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