The Forger

The Plot: The world's best art forger (John Travolta) makes a deal with a crime syndicate to get an early release from prison, but in return he must pull off an impossible heist. He must forge a painting by Claude Monet, steal the original from a museum, and replace it with a replica so perfect that no one will notice. He enlists the help of his father (Christopher Plummer) and son (Tye Sheridan) and together they plan the heist of their lives! OMG! First of all the plot is idiotic. Next, it goes no where. It is so slow you will be put to sleep. BUT the biggest problem is not one frame of this movie is believable. Not ONE.

"If you had one wish, what would you wish for?" Raymond (Travolta) is tired of being in prison and will do anything to get out. He finally finds a way, by making a deal with a criminal. If they let him out he must pull of an impossible heist in return. Backed into a corner Raymond, his father (Plummer) and his son must do the impossible or face dire consequences. This is a movie I was looking forward to. It sounded interesting and I love heist movies. I am not a huge fan of Travolta but I was still excited about this. I was disappointed. This was really just a paint by numbers movie with nothing all that new or original. You can see the end coming a mile away and that takes all the fun out of the movie. Some people may like this but I was pretty disappointed. Overall, not as good as I hoped. The Best Offer was a way better movie. I give this a C+.

"You ever going to Tahiti like Paul Gauguin? I don't know." If there's something Travolta remained loyal to, then surely it's his distinctive, sad look. Ever since I saw him the first time appearing in "Saturday Night Fever" (ages ago), he uses that sad expression. It always looks as if he's going to burst out in tears. And the movie"The Forger" is substantively perfect for retrieving that typical facial expression at the right time. A film about a convicted forger who turned his back at his former profession. And at the same time he's a concerned father who would do anything to be with his son the short time that's left. And that's where this movie fails a bit. Does the emphasis lie on the father-son relationship or was it the intention to make a crime story? The final result is a mix of these two, with the result that both aspects feel like semi-finished. Raymond J. Cutter (John Travolta) is a notorious forger of art works and is about to be released earlier because of a deal with a thug called Keegan (Anson Mount). In this way he can spend some time with his son Will (Tye Sheridan), a petite teenager whose future doesn't look so rosy after they've discovered a brain tumor. To say the very least, the relationship between Will and his father isn't too good. Also between Raymond and his father (Christopher Plummer), who took care of Will during Raymond's absence, there are some disputes. The additional problem is that Keegan expects something in return from Raymond, namely forging a valuable, world famous painting from Monet. Now, I'm not an art expert but I don't think you can forge a Monet painting in such a short time period. I'm sure you don't really need high-tech methods to determine from the outset if the painting hanging on the wall is authentic or recently painted. But my gut feeling says that this aspect of "The Forger" is irrelevant and that it's just used as an entertaining way to introduce the father-son relationship. Would Travolta be a professional dancer in this film, and he and his son had to participate in a renowned competition together (where Travolta could show his famous 70s dance moves once again) this would have yielded the same result. Commercially, the result would probably be disappointing. So we throw in a bit of mystery and crime (where Travolta can demonstrate his tough side again and beat up some bouncers with a baseball bat) to make it more attractive. Although it looks a lot like a typical movie, at times the acting transcends the average. Especially the moments between father and son are beautifully played with vulnerability and regret getting the upper hand. That it eventually turns into a collaboration between father and son, is a bit far-fetched. Plummer also shines at times and shows he's perfectly suited for a character part. Even Travolta demonstrates that he has more to offer than just watching sad all the time. The loss of his son Jett most likely has something to do with his rendition looking so realistic. Maybe he decided to give this role a try as a therapeutic decision, in order to put a painful period in the past. More reviews here : http://bit.ly/1KIdQMT

slow start but the pace does pick up , there are some nice touches and the characters do stir emotion and feeling…travolta uses his skills well to say few words bt the long silences speak volumes if ur willing to listen!….i guess he is using his own experience of loosing a son to convey the mood that would accompany such a tragic process for a parent and child ….plummer also plays his part as the long suffering yet slightly irreverent father to travolta ….tye sheridan is also well capable in his role as Will ,conveying adolescence and a heavy burden. Jennifer Ehle plays her character brilliantly as a disconnected drug addict mother reluctant to resolve her past. The film is also sensitive to the beauty of art and at the same time i guess the suffering that has accompanied some real artists whom have left us with a moment in history…The recipe of differing themes is well portrayed and nicely and sensitively edited ….as long as expectations are kept reasonable, as no mind blowing car chases occur or fantasy special effects …then this film is worth your time imo and may even stimulate a tear or two and the ending although fairly predicable is a nice conclusion and not over cooked … im sure but could be wrong that this Monet was or is in the cardiff museum in wales ?

Saw a trailer for this movie here on IMDb through no fault of my own, and when I got the chance to see it, I did. I got the feeling that this wasn't the biggest movie in history, and it isn't either. I paint, and I like me a good heist-movie from time to time, and John Travolta is a decent actor, so I gave it a whirl. Now, this movie isn't super bad, nor is it super good. It's a little under mediocre. The acting is pretty uninspired in some parts, and lacks energy, but it's all over OK. Travolta does an OK job, his charm shines through a little, but not a lot. The movie has some slight action sprinkled in, actually a teeny bit of violence, but nothing much. It's like, almost exciting, and the heist part is alright. All over it's OK. I'm not one to talk about plot holes, but there is one here that bothered me a little. All in all the movie takes no chances and is just OK. I was mildly entertained for most of the time.

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source: The Forger

A curious mix of family drama and crime thriller that never even begins to threaten to become a good cohesive mix, Philip Martin's The Forger is one of countless other films in years past that has potential yet fails to realise it due to lacklustre acting, scripting and some quite dire direction. Starring the now long time mojo-less John Travolta, The Forger gives the near unrecognisable 70's/80's icon a chance to shine as art loving forger (and proud goatee sporting) Raymond Cutter who just wants to spend some quality time with his dying son Will played by Tree of Life's Tye Sheridan but gets caught up with some mean old baddies who want him to do one last job but Travolta fails to bring anything to the table other than a torrid hairdo and while his interplay with Sheridan can be at times humorous and almost affecting, it doesn't work enough to make up for the Forger's shoddily handled storytelling. Every man, women, child and all those in between love a good heist movie, the tension of the set-up, the plans and the execution can make for white knuckle thrills but the Forger, to its detriment, never bothers to raise so much as a slight pulse and by the films so called finale, you'll be wondering if you've in fact been conned into "one last score" that just doesn't payoff. We could've done with double the dose of planning and making paint and far less meandering father/son relationship drama and for all the films effort to make us care for both Raymond and Will, by the end we frankly couldn't care less about their plight even though the film's final scene shows us just what could've been. Wasting a ripe story, industry vet Christopher Plummer and generally wasting our time with a movie that promises something yet delivers nothing, The Forger is a direct to DVD effort than you can stay well away from and is another nail in the increasingly shut coffin lid that now lays almost perfectly flush over the casket of John Travolta's slowly dying career. 1 ½ uneven soul patches out of 5