The Maiden Heist [M]

Roger, Charles, and George have been museum security guards for years and, as such, have developed strong attachments to their favourite works of art. So, it’s a terrible crime when the new curator decides to ship the old pieces to Denmark and bring in some new ones. Desperate to keep their favourite pieces, the three decide steal them and send replicas to Denmark instead. But, as they’re not thieves, their perfect heist soon turns into a class A disaster. 

A little bit like Mad Money, which is another quirky comedy about employees robbing their place or work, The Maiden Heist is a wonderful little offbeat movie that holds laughs for everyone, even though you can guess what grand cock-up is about to happen. Armed with a very cute and clever script and a great central cast, it’s a great little film that I really enjoyed. 

Roger, Charles, and George have been museum security guards for years and, as such, have developed strong attachments to their favourite works of art. So, it’s a terrible crime when the new curator decides to ship the old pieces to Denmark and bring in some new ones. Desperate to keep their favourite pieces, the three decide steal them and send replicas to Denmark instead. But, as they’re not thieves, their perfect heist soon turns into a class A disaster. 

There is something about these little off-centre comedies that’s really appealing. It very well could be the whole good-people-spontaneously-becoming-bandits thing because all those types of films, The Maiden Heist, Mad Money and even The Linguini Incident have that feeling of innocence, sort of like a comic virginity. I don’t really know how to explain it, but there is something really appealing about these little, often unheard-of comedies that depict essentially very good people randomly becoming criminals by blundering their way through a robbery of their workplace. I don’t know about you, but I just find that whole thing really funny and a wonderful setting and scenario for a comedy. 

The entire film is simple, but very funny, armed with a solid story and a great script that affords wonderful comedy delights such as puns, satire, and classic misinterpretations, such as the running gag of Roger misinterpreting the meaning of “roger”. 

Not to mention that the central trio of Christopher Walken, Morgan Freeman, and William H. Macy was just classic and all three of them were so cute. Also starring Marcia Gay Harden and Breckin Meyer, The Maiden Heist is a wonderful, light, film that’s filled with stealth, strategy, suspense, catastrophe, romance, cats, and heaps of comedy. I really enjoyed it.