There is something immediately appealing about a film built around stealing the Mona Lisa... It is one of the most recognisable paintings in the world, housed in one of the most heavily visited museums on the planet... Turning its theft into the centrepiece of a criminal operation..
Masterplan takes that question and adds a complicated family reunion to the equation..
Directed by Thomas Vincent, the film follows Roger Cavendish, a sophisticated master thief played by Stanley Tucci, who recruits two highly skilled criminals for an ambitious operation targeting the Louvre. Chiara, played by Simona Tabasco, specialises in cybercrime, while Jay, portrayed by Victor Belmondo, is an explosives expert... Their assignment becomes considerably more complicated when Roger reveals that the two strangers are actually siblings and that he is their father.
Suddenly, this is no longer simply a story about an elaborate robbery. It is also about three people with very little reason to trust one another being forced into an arrangement that demands complete cooperation.
The premise is easily the film's strongest asset... A major art theft offers opportunities for suspense, clever planning, unexpected betrayals and the kind of intricate problem solving that makes heist films so entertaining... Adding unresolved family relationships creates another potential source of conflict, particularly when the people involved have spent years living separate lives.
Unfortunately, Masterplan doesn't always make the most of these possibilities... The film has the ingredients for an entertaining crime caper, but bringing those ingredients together convincingly proves more difficult than expected.
Stanley Tucci Is the Centre of Gravity.. He gives Roger a polished, self-assured presence that suits the character... He understands the appeal of playing a criminal who prefers intelligence and preparation to unnecessary aggression... Roger is supposed to be the person in the room who already knows how everything will unfold and Tucci brings enough personality to make that confidence believable...
The difficulty is that the character's charm occasionally feels stronger than the material supporting him... Chiara and Jay are introduced as capable professionals with specialised skills, yet the film doesn't consistently develop their personalities beyond those abilities... Their unexpected family connection should provide the emotional foundation of the story but the writing doesn't always give their relationships enough depth to make the revelation as powerful as it could be and the result is an uneven dynamic. There are moments when the three characters are genuinely interesting together but others when the film seems to be moving them through predetermined plot points rather than allowing their relationships to develop naturally... When the Heist Becomes Secondary.. A successful heist film requires more than an ambitious target... The audience needs to understand the obstacles, appreciate the planning and feel that the outcome could genuinely go either way and Masterplan occasionally creates that sense of anticipation but its plotting becomes increasingly dependent on familiar genre conventions and convenient developments.
The family drama doesn't entirely compensate for this weakness either... The relationship between Roger and his newly discovered children offers an opportunity to explore trust, resentment and responsibility but these themes could have been developed with considerably more subtlety but the movie sometimes struggles to balance the emotional story with the mechanics of the robbery... The influence of familiar heist movies is apparent but Masterplan doesn't consistently establish an identity of its own...
Rating: 85/100
