Art Heist
| Art Heist | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Bryan Goeres |
| Produced by | Manual Corbi |
| Written by |
Diane Fine Evan Spiliotopoulos |
| Starring |
Ellen Pompeo William Baldwin Abel Folk |
| Music by | Sean Murray |
| Cinematography | Jacques Haitkin |
|
Release date
|
July 13, 2004 |
|
Running time
|
98 minutes |
| Country | Spain United States |
| Language | English Spanish Russian |
| Budget | $30 million |
| Box office | $130-150 million |
Art Heist is a 2004 film starring Ellen Pompeo, William Baldwin, and Spanish actor Abel Folk. Written by Diane Fine and Evan Spiliotopoulos, produced by Manual Corbi, and released on July 13, 2004.
The film is a romantic thriller that starts off by showing a daring, well-planned robbery of a very famous and expensive painting from the MNAC art museum in Barcelona, Spain. The museum has many security features that are problematic for the thieves, but because of their skill they are able to circumvent the security and steal the famous El Greco Christ Carrying the Cross on display courtesy of Victor Boyd (Ed Lauter.)
After the first heist, Sandra Walker (Ellen Pompeo), is called by her boss Victor Boyd and sent to Spain to ensure his El Greco is returned. Victor Boyd, the owner of the stolen El Greco, is a very rich and powerful businessman who Sandra works for as an art consultant. She is called in to find the stolen El Greco because she persuaded Victor to display it at the MNAC art museum, from which it was ultimately stolen. While getting ready for her trip to Spain to track down the missing El Greco, the audience is given some insight into Sandra’s life: She is separated from an NYPD detective, Bruce (William Baldwin), and they have a young daughter together, Allison (Madison Goeres) The couple appears to be going through a bit of a rough patch, but still seem to love each other. Sandra is able to convince her husband to watch their daughter while she’s away. Bruce is skeptical of the whole situation and worried about Sandra’s well-being.
Upon her arrival at the crime scene in Barcelona, Sandra is reunited with an old colleague of hers, Daniel (Abel Folk), who was brought in to consult on the investigation. It quickly becomes apparent these two have a deep history and there are many secret feelings. The two of them make a great team and quickly narrow down the list of suspects to the ruthless Russian mobster Dimitri Maximov (Simon Andreu) Dimitri is portrayed as a questionable individual who seems to be scheming some sort of master plan as the art heists continue. This plays right into Sandra and Daniel’s suspicion that he is the culprit. Another El Greco is stolen during an auction that both Sandra and Daniel as well as all potential suspect attend. While in the bathroom, Sandra observes one thief escaping. After alerting Daniel, they pursue the suspect through Barcelona but crash into a restaurant. After waking up in the hospital, Bruce and their daughter arrive from New York. Soon after, Sandra’s life is threatened in a park where she was together with her daughter and husband. The attacker demands that she leave Spain. However, Bruce chases them away and follows them on a motorbike. Although he manages to catch up with one attacker, they eventually flee after knocking him down. However, he managed to see the face of one of them as well as ripping a piece of his clothing which gave him a clue to a night club. When Maximov's yacht gets blown up with all the paintings, the original theory seems confirmed. Several clues point towards Sandra as a main accomplice. However, Sandra’s partner in the investigation, Daniel, who had been nothing but helpful and affectionate turns out to be the villain in a dramatic ending scene. After Bruce and Sandra discover the paintings in Daniel's studio, Daniel kidnaps their daughter and sets up a meeting at a closed amusement park overlooking the sea where he arrives by helicopter with the last surviving thief (the others having been killed by him to keep his fee to himself). Daniel, in his capacity as an art professor, had been using his students to steal the art under orders from Sandra’s boss, Victor Boyd. Victor planned to frame Sandra by depositing large amounts of money in her bank accounts to make it appear as though she sold security information to the robbers. As the final scene unfolds and all of this information is revealed to the audience, we ask “Why?” As it turns out, Daniel was frustrated with his persistent failures as an artist while other artists around him flourished. He participated in this long and carefully thought-out scheme for his own revenge and Victor's promise to help him become famous. At the last moment, Bruce comes to the rescue of his estranged wife and daughter, only to be shot by Victor after subduing Daniel. Although it appeared as though Daniel and Victor were going to make a dramatic helicopter getaway, after Victor explained that he planned to kill Sandra and her daughter, Daniel had a change of heart and tried to protect them from Victor; only to be shot. Right before his death, Daniel passed Bruce his gun and with it Bruce was able to kill Victor. The movie ends with Sandra's family reunited.
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