Review of THE CODE (Thick as Thieves).

THE CODE (THICK AS THIEVES)

The movie opens with KEITH RIPLEY (Morgan Freeman) walking into a health spa and shooting a man in the pool. No explanation. Then GABRIEL (Gaby) MARTIN (Anthony Banderas) robs diamonds from two curriers on a subway train. Ripley is in the train and watches with a bemused smile. After the robbery, Ripley follows Martin and tries to entice him to help Ripley steal two Faberge eggs worth twenty million dollars each from ROMANOV JEWELERS.  Gaby is reluctant. At this point, Gaby meets Ripley's goddaughter, ALEXANDRA KAROLIN.  The two flirt for a while, and soon fall into bed. Enter LIEUTENANT WEBER, who has been obsessed with putting Ripley in jail for the past twenty years. Weber knows Ripley plans to rob Romanov's, and determines to trap him, even though the FBI tells him to lay off because they want to catch a Russian criminal, who, by the way, Ripley owes a lot of money to which is why he's eager to steal the eggs.

And then the plot gets complicated. 

The first two thirds are easy to follow, but towards the end the story becomes so convoluted I never did understand just how the characters arrived at the finale. SPOILER ALERT--almost everyone is happy with how it turns out.

The way Gaby woos Alexandra is obnoxious. He stalks her, breaks into her apartment (granted, to prepare a dinner, but still), and dangles her keys in front of her.  He should get a hard slap in the face, but instead, he gets a roll in the hay.  Not a good message.

The film has a lot of honest tension, in particular when Ripley is on the move. Some scenes feel been contrived as if to increase the drama; these scenes are integral to the plot, but their presentation is clumsy.

The strongest part of the movie is, no surprise, Morgan Freeman's portrayal of Ripley.  This character is so cool, he gives you the shivers. You can't help watching and wondering what he'll do next. The thief is the ultimate in smoothness, and Freeman carries it out to perfection without ever crossing the line that would make it a parody.

I never did figure out what code the title is referring to.

THE CODE received a lot of bad reviews, which is fair; it's a lightweight film. Still, it does have several thrilling scenes that can get your pulse up to a run.  I give it ++++.