Doors Open

A movie for adults, for a change that keeps you guessing-and smiling- with first-rate acting in a dramas about art and friendship.

At least half of this badly paced and poorly written crime caper could have been cut. Most of the first hour drags... the "heist" is mildly entertaining, but doesn't make up for the rest.

All the educated, middle class people, apart from Douglas Henshall's character are English, or have English accents. And all the schemies/working class people have Glaswegian ones. (Apart from some Geordie criminals!) Edinburgh is not like that, and it seems all too reminiscent of the Alasdair Gray row. Is Scotland colonised? Well, watching this, you'd well think so. Apparently almost all Scots live in council house schemes, are football obsessed and don't get involved in the art world. The hegemony implicit in this is outrageous!

The cast is tops. And the top actor is Stephen Fry an art professor then collection curator. Douglas Henshall buys a painting for his partner. Then five years pass, and he and she are not together. She, Lenore Crichlow, is engaged to the man purchasing the Fry collection. The painting Henshaw bought for her she sold, and it is in the collection. He offers to buy it, but is refused. He, Fry, and Kenneth Collard decide to take seven paintings and replace them with forgeries. The criminal doing the theft gives the Hate character a phony painting. In the third five years we find out what happened. I think breaking the timeline into five year segments doesn't work. It worked in the book by Rankin, but here it slows the pace too much. The soundtrack is the most annoying music I have ever heard. Still, it is a good film for the top acting.

Amazon ratings are much higher. Thoroughly entertaining, satisfying romp. It rises above the crime caper genre with a great cast, humor, a love story, engaging characters, Scottish locale, museum world interest, and an Ian Rankin novel screenplay adaptation.

I'm surprised that this is so low rated. I saw it when it first came out, and then again nearly a decade later. I love this small and fun little film, part heist, part love story. The plot is decent, the acting is good, and the directing is inventive (note the shot looking straight down from the ceiling as the tourists are forced to exit after the fire alarm).

I gave this film a 9 out of 10, though am perhaps tempted to give it a full 10 out of 10. Love it!