Con Or Artist?-Donald Sutherland’s “The Con Artist” (2011)-A Film Review  

DVD Review

By Sam Lowell

The Con Artist, Rossif Sutherland, Donald Sutherland, Rebecca Ronijn, Sarah Roemer, 2011

Sometimes you grab a film just on a hunch, maybe an educated hunch but a hunch nevertheless. Sometimes they meet expectations, sometimes not. The latter was the case with the film under review The Con Artist. First off in my reasons for taking a chance on the film ever since he was in the film version of M.A.S.H. I have admired Donald Sutherland’s work and I figured the add-on of one of his sons might be interesting. Secondly I figured the plotline might have something to do with con artists, a subject which since childhood when I hung around with my fair share of them (and took a short spin in that milieu myself) has intrigued me. Checking out what is new in conning.         

Instead the con artist of the title is an angry, kind of surly young man, Vince, played by Donald’s son Rossif who had indeed just gotten out of stir after five years as the fall guy for a car heist gone wrong but who also was some kind of mad monk artist-sculptor. Hence con artist. The problem with Vince when he gets out is that he still owes the head of his criminal syndicate, Kranski, played by the old man, a ton of dough for losses in the botched heist. To get out from under he will have to go back to the old auto theft hustle that got him in trouble in the first place. In his spare time he also fools around with making sculpture-something out of the Louise Nevelson “school” of taking waste materials and creating something which people will declare is great art (and others will purchase).

Where Vince’s big break comes in is when he rams into a high-pressure art gallery owner’s car and low on dough talks her, Brenda, played by   Rebecca Romijn, into doing the repairs at Kranski’s car shop (where legal and illegal things go on). When she see his sculpture sitting in the back of the shop she sees nothing but dollar signs. And so the running battle between a life of crime and high art for Vince gets played out. Along the way Vince falls for Brenda’s assistant, Kristen, played by Sarah Roemer, after they play cat and mouse about having an affair when from about minute one anyone watching could see they had eyes for each other-big time eyes. After a few falls and a couple of breaks in helping bust up a major car ring heist Vince heads for the high art life-and Kristen. Donald Sutherland wound up with a bunch of slugs in him sitting on his butt on a docked freighter waiting to take his own turn in stir. Maybe he will take up art. Just a so-so film here.