Marlon Brando: Massive but masterful

These days Marlon Brando is a virtual pachyderm of a man. Quite monstrous in bulk, in fact, but all the magnificent talent is still there, very much in force, even if you don’t actually get to see him very long in terms of screen time. I believe he only worked about three or four days on “The Score,” picking up something like $3 million for his efforts.

The film is basically a slight, but thoroughly agreeable, piece of work. When you consider all the digitalized fireworks, high-powered violence, general vulgarity and sex carelessly tossed about these days in the multiplexes of the land, you have to be grateful to see three first-rate, top-of-the-line professionals, each representing his own generation, each thoroughly enjoying himself. It’s a film to sit back, relax and enjoy wholeheartedly.

Robert de Niro carries the main weight of the storyline. A highly proficient thief who owns a share in an attractive jazz club in Montreal – a refreshingly different locale – is about ready to pack up the tools of his trade, pay off the mortgage on the club and settle down to a comfortable life with his appealing airline stewardess (Angela Bassett).

But as always happens in films of this sort, along comes longtime pal and fence, the mighty Max (Brando) with a highly tempting offer – the kind of offer no fellow in the first 15 minutes into a film ever turns down. A perfect setup. A share of $4 million. Nick (de Niro) has made it a rule never to work on his own turf, yet this job means breaking into the Customs House in Montreal. And he’s always worked on his own and this set-up involves a young thief (Edward Norton) on his way up, jealous of having spotted this particular heist, yet unable to execute it on his own.

The treasure at stake is a golden specter, created supposedly for a young French queen in 1661. Don’t ask: There was no new French queen in 1661 and, anyway, French queens didn’t bear specters – but so what? The specter in question looks like a properly glamorous, spiffy piece of loot.

Norton is unhappy about having to acknowledge de Niro as the boss, but has no choice it seems. All the steps leading up to the heist are worked out with all due suspense. Especially neat is a little piece of business when de Niro’s computer hack runs into interference, when he’s breaking an entry code, and will only yield the secret on payment of $50,000 – to be delivered in a public park with kids frolicking all around, as the codes are telephoned to the hacker.

Each step of the way into the inner vault of the Customs House is minutely paced out. Norton works as a nighttime janitor, a spastically handicapped soul, and a perfect cover. De Niro gets in, with Norton blocking all the infra-red cameras protecting the vault, so de Niro gets the perfect 15 minutes to blow the safe in a particularly ingenious way … until everything starts coming undone. How? Well, you’ll have to see “The Score” to savor the payoff.

The sheer delight in the film is to see the ease with which such masters as Brando, de Niro and Norton work their craft, each bouncing off the other with perfect skill. Brando definitely earned his $3 million but it’s too bad he couldn’t have been given at least a couple more scenes.

Minor production detail: Apparently Brando didn’t care much for director Frank Oz, whose biggest screen credit to date had been to do the voice-over of Miss Piggy in “The Muppets.” Word has it that Brando consistently chose to refer to director Oz as “Miss Piggy” on the set. No matter. Miss Piggy or no, the director certainly got Brando to deliver the goods.