This is an icy cold adaptation of Jim Thompson's novel about con artists, with tough "working-woman" Huston coming back into the life of her grown son after many years of estrangement and finding that he's taken up with a woman much like herself. Bleak and fascinating, with three first-class performances. Grifter's got an irresistible urge to beat a guy that's wise," an old-timer tells Roy (John Cusack). And yet the three characters here--played by Angelica Huston, Cusack, and Bening-only beat the innocent: Lilly gigs at the track for a mobster named Bobo, putting wads of cash on long-shot horses to even out the odds. Roy, her son, swindles citizens by dimes and degrees, flashing twenties at bars then paying for his beer with tens. His girlfriend, Myra is hustling herself; her salad days as a long-con roper are behind her. Theirs is a world of gut punches and smart lines.
             I think I watched The Grifters three times before we had to return it on Sunday, and it wasn't just Annette Bening's by-now notorious nude scene; more than anything, it was the foul-mouthed cool of John Cusack. Where the women in the film are given instantly identifiable, outrageously great roles to chew on, Cusack's performance is sleeker, subtler. He occupies both the position of innocent narrator and the jaded, melancholic jerk. More than anything, it is a movie you jump into rather than just watch. Like a pool of light in a dark, damp alley, your eyes can't help but be drawn to it.
             The Grifters isn't perfect, and perhaps that's why it still not quite considered a classic. There is many a rough spots, and some of the exposition gets too close to being outright silly. The narrative can be obvious, but the tone and feel never waver .
             The important question going through our minds through "The Grifters" is simple: Who's conning who? The outward story elements would initially have us believe in a straightforward story of one person che
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