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List Price: $9.98 | | Label: Showtime Ent.
Salesrank: 95863
Released: June 28, 2005 |
| Our Price: $3.42 |
| Used Price: $0.15 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A poignant tale of a family in crisis. Dad has suffered a stroke, and Mom’s job as an English teacher barely pays the rent, especially with the added burden of three children. Her will to survive is palpable as she struggles with an unforgiving medical system and copes with a child teetering on adolescence.
The Best Thief in the World Reviews:
pretty good 
2009-01-30 - this movie was pretty good. i picked it up the other day and i liked it.
Good movie 
2008-01-17 - This is a well written movie that was shot in one of my homes of New York City. It was well acted even with the children actors who in most cases this was their first film. It also has Mary Louise Parker who is a very good actress that is sometimes under rated but in this movie you can see her talent.
Parker Shines Again
2008-01-14 - The Best Thief in the World is a character study on how a parent and her young son cope with life. In a sense, Mary-Louise Parker's character, Sue, a teacher with a salty vocabulary, is a single parent.As the film opens, her husband has suffered a debilitating stroke. Consequently, she struggles with the demands and stressors of her career, parenting, the relationship with her mother and care giving skills, not unlike her character on the Showtime series, Weeds. Tough decision need to be made with Sue often coping through denial. Sue and her relationship with her son Izzy (played well by Michael Silverman) is interesting to watch and as usual, Parker presents a true performance.
On the other glove, Izzy attempts to cope with his life by breaking into people's apartments, which begins playfully yet evolves into more serious circumstances. Both mother and son attempt to cope with their grief and pain in unrealistic methods, yet somehow survive.
For folks who enjoy character driven films, check out The Best Thief in the World. It does not always work and there is an annoying method of sequence transitions with "Rapping" children. However, Parker's performance is spot on.
Bruce Nelson
Far, Far Below 'Showtime Entertainment' Quality 
2006-08-09 - To put it bluntly, this movie is so far below the usual quality of Showtime movies dealing with kids it should have been left on the cutting room floor. First, every so often up pops two preschool, foul-mouth rappers that seem to just intrude into the very thin story - they don't even seem to be characters in the yarn, just in-your-face intruders. Second, little Izzy not only breaks into apartments, but is held in high esteem by the neighborhood kids for doing it. Finally, when Issy tried to confess to his mother about the tragedy, she brushes him off as if she knows the truth but doesn't care to deal with it. The only reason I didn't give the movie an 'F' is that it does show, to those who understand child psychology, how a troubled little boy is trying to cry out for help. The problem is that in the movie it is never dealt with; or anybody showing any understanding of Izzy's needs. The mother just runs away from the situation to start anew in Michigan.
incredible story 
2006-01-12 - What an incredibly true to life story The Best Thief In The World is! This drama is what more movies about families in crisis should be. You certainly won't find any others to match its' ability of displaying what life in desperate situations is truly like. With a dad incapacitated due to a stroke, a mom trying to make ends meet and hope that it will all come together and a bad neighborhood filled with kids growing up in city poverty condidtions, what's a tween to do? Young Izzy breaks into others' apartments less for what he can steal and more for the thrill of doing it and not getting caught. He leaves several examples of his having been there, so the people know that their living space had been invaded, but takes very little if anything at all most visits. The ending of this movie is very powerful and not in any Hollywood sense of the word. This is a made for cable true life drama that is done perfectly in that real independent movie sense and definitely deserves to be watched again and again.
