Blood and Wine

The theft of a $1m diamond necklace from a wine dealer's wealthy client is merely the generic hook for Rafelson's insidious character study, which teams Nicholson's over-reaching vintner with Caine's terminally seedy safe cracker. As in The Postman Always Rings Twice, the crime itself proves deceptively easy; it's the ensuing complications that expose the subtly shifting alliances, the sly deceptions and the murky motives. With his crudely dyed black hair and big talk, the has-been Caine's professional competence is as shaky as his health, and everything is complicated by Nicholson and his unwitting son Dorff's mutual lust for the inside connection, the client's sexy, manipulative nanny, Jennifer Lopez. An engrossing thriller - and one sparkling with intelligence, with the surprising twists grounded in credible human behaviour.