Girls of Geek Movie Review: The Grifters

Written by Scotty

Pulling the perfect con is something that everyone can do, but several people try it whether it be to make extra money or to make their relationships work.  If you are looking to do this, there are a couple of things that are essential.  Have confidence, pretend to be someone you are not and make sure that your cover will not be blown.  For some people these necessities come easy, but for others it takes many years and several failures until they get it just right. 

Roy Dillon has perfected the small con and for the most part he gets away with it.  With play on words and slight of hand, he has made a good living for himself until he gets caught.  Being punched in the stomach and suffering internal bleeding, Roy has to be taken to the hospital by his mother who he wants to owe nothing to for the years of neglect.  Although his mother, Lilly has made a great life for herself as well, Roy will not allow himself to be in her debt and will do everything in his power to pay her back.

Lilly’s new business is working for a bookie named Bobo who keeps his eyes and profits on the race tracks.  Having the inside on what horses will win, Bobo pays Lilly to put his money down on the long shots with the largest payoff, but when she misses a race where a seventy to one horse comes in first, he is beyond upset.  Making a special visit out to California to confront Lilly about what happened, Bobo threatens to kill her for the loss of so much money and gets Lilly to come clean about skimming from his winnings.  Lilly admits to taking his money but also comes clean that the only reason she missed the race was to take care of her son. 

With Lilly now being put on top of Bobo’s radar, she cannot afford another loss or she will be killed and not seeing eye to eye with her son’s girlfriend, she will have to find another way to survive.  Myra Langtry is another con artist that wants to get back into the game and finding out that her boyfriend Roy is working cons to pay back his mother, she wants to get in on the action once again.  Making plans to start up a high paying long con, Myra is astonished to find out that Roy is not onboard with her.  She blames the love for his mother and will do anything to get Lilly out of her man’s life.

The Grifters is a story about the dysfunctional relationship between Roy and Lilly Dillon as they meet up after being apart for over ten years.  Knowing that each one is working an angle, they do not trust each other, but that is far from their biggest challenge.  With his girlfriend not meeting the approval of his mother, Roy decides not to trust her with anything, especially when she finds out he is in the con business.  Having turned her down for a long con that would pay off in the five digits category, Myra tries to find a way to get Roy’s mother out of the picture so he will do the jobs she excels at.  Finding on her own that Lilly has a trunk full of cash, she makes a call to Bobo and forces Lilly to run, but Roy’s love is much stronger than Myra could have ever imagined. 

With all of the financial troubles that are still out there, it is good to see what kind of ways people are willing to go to make an extra buck and the con seems to be one of the tops.  Even though they are not as extravagant as in the movies, people are still trying to pull the sheep’s wool over our eyes and take our money without doing a thing for it.  With great characters, this movie shows you how easy it is to pull a con if you have the soft enough morals to allow yourself to get away with it.  Pulling a con for money is one thing, but if you try to pull a con for a relationship, you might get more than you bargained for.  Happy Viewing.

---