A ★★★ review of The Heist of the Century (2020) (2024)

As if the title "Heroic Losers" weren't already confusing, this title sounds both more impressive and less heroic. It seems way too early into the century to name this its definitive heist, especially when they caught the culprits, though the culprits actually hammer home how impressive this heist was. In 2006, Diego Peretti's Fernando Araujo is but an aging hippie wanderlust, so high that he doesn't simply think he can knock off a Buenos Aires branch of Banco Rio, but figures out how he can. Teaming up with a veteran lady's man, a family guy, some religious nut and an actual pro banker, he masterminds a wildly convoluted operation that they manage to get out of with over $15 million USD. Man, that is a hell of a heist, but again, they caught the guys, albeit in equally outrageous fashion. As much trouble as these fellas have lying low when the mysterious toy gun-armed thieves are hailed as folk heroes, greed leads to a breakdown in cover and the ranks that will bring our man to one form of justice or another. It's an absolute blast, but it's hardly as heroic as "Heroic Losers", and actually less impressive.

This is of course a wildly generic heist movie tracing the usual rise and fall of earnest everypeople into a colorful ensemble of crafty, misguided criminals; and I'm sure the filmmakers are conscious of the clichés. This is very much a smooth jazzy, personality-driven heist comedy in the vein of Steven Soderbergh's "Ocean" series, sans the suave and professional criminals. Nonetheless, our characters are pretty much one-note personalities, never so broad as to feel cloying or farfetched, but never quite interesting enough to justify the lack of textured development and dramatic cadence. They're driven by fluffy quirks and banter that inevitably transition into mundane melodrama, so of course it's all about the heist across almost two hours of pure momentum. The job is wildly convoluted and, despite the frantic assertion that this is a true story, too preposterous to really buy into, given the allegedly limited liberties with storytelling and its commercially broad presentation. This is just pure comedy caper entertainment, bursting with emptily flashy style and overthought plotting in lieu of nuanced characterization and creativity. The filmmakers know what this is, and they know how to milk it for all its worth as that pure comedy caper entertainment.

Our characters are sufficiently likable as desperate everypeople with a healthy measure of intelligence and impulse to legitimize their broad, banal personalities, but not enliven them as much as their dynamics. They have plenty of warm, snappy banter, with the predictably glowing backing of an all-star cast of top-notch charismas. You should feel enough for these characters to get hit by the inevitable downfalls driven by classic themes on greed and limited honor among thieves, which may be a bit too "serious" even for a movie this cliched. The aftermath of the heist is only the last, like, less than 30 minutes of the movie, so this really is all about setting up a phenomenal heist with no concern about grounding it for the sake of that "Based on a True Story" claim. The 2006 siege of Acassuso's Banco Rio branch is pretty much a fantasy here, and it's endlessly thrilling to see these unlikely criminal masterminds formulate a meticulously elaborate scheme to break in, execute it with confidence, and grapple with the fallout. Along the way, Ariel Winograd cuts and shoots with agile flair, blasts Dario Eskenazi's eccentrically jazzy or self-awaredly overdramatic score, and structures action with charmingly self-conscious suspense. It's a thoroughly entertaining caper for fans of this type of formula, but make no mistake, this is unambitiously of that formula.

It's an unapologetically trite heist romp relishing staples of broad personality, abrasive style and fluffy fantasizing, and it's naturally so fun with its lively characterization and all-star performances, juicy and elaborate heist proceedings, and dazzling direction that Ariel Winograd's "The Heist of the Century" scores as a creatively bankrupt, richly entertaining caper.

3/5 - Decent