The Maiden Heist

Last updated
The Maiden Heist
Maiden Heist Cover.jpg
Original cover art
Directed by Peter Hewitt
Written byMichael LeSieur
Produced by Bob Yari
Lori McCreary
Rob Paris
Starring Morgan Freeman
Christopher Walken
William H. Macy
Marcia Gay Harden
Ahmad Harhash
Cinematography Ueli Steiger
Edited byCarole Kravetz-Aykanian
Music by Rupert Gregson-Williams
Production
company
Distributed by Yari Film Group
Release date
  • May 29, 2009 (2009-05-29)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Maiden Heist is a 2009 American crime comedy film directed by Peter Hewitt and starring Morgan Freeman, Christopher Walken, William H. Macy and Marcia Gay Harden. [1] The film was released as The Heist in the United Kingdom.

Contents

Plot

Roger (Christopher Walken) is a security guard at an art museum, where he spends a lot of time staring at his favorite painting, The Lonely Maiden, a beautiful woman staring forlornly out into the distance. Despite the fact he has a wife, Rose (Marcia Gay Harden), he has become rather obsessed with the painting. Rose wants Roger to retire so they can move to Florida. One afternoon, Roger learns that several pieces including The Lonely Maiden are to be permanently moved to another museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. Unable to follow the maiden, Roger falls into despair until he meets Charles (Morgan Freeman), another guard who has a similar attraction to a painting on another floor, a painting of a woman with cats.

George (William H. Macy) is also obsessed with a piece of art, a nude sculpture of a Greek warrior; he often strips down and poses naked beside it during his night shift. Using the advantages between their shifts and experience, George comes up with the idea to steal their favorite works of art and replace them with replicas. Roger volunteers to tag the artworks being shipped, while Charles and George seek assistance in replicating their favorites. Because Charles is a painter, he's able to do the cat painting perfectly, but he fails in capturing The Lonely Maiden. The men hire a street artist (Breckin Meyer) for that task, forcing Roger to steal Rose's Florida vacation savings to pay for the job. Rose becomes suspicious and nearly ends up having Roger taken off the volunteer staff. George manages to replicate "his" sculpture and the Maiden copy is also completed.

On the day of the switch, George sneaks into the warehouse in the crate with the statue. He successfully swaps the three marked pieces, but can't resist stripping down and posing with the statue. A guard shows up, forcing George to hide in the crate without his clothes. The next morning, when Roger and Charlie (with the unwitting accompaniment of Rose) come to collect him, the crate containing George ends up in the wrong van. A panic-stricken Charlie gives chase, and they manage to successfully rescue George, who emerges from the shipping crate unclothed, much to Rose's shock.

Having pulled off the heist without getting caught, they retire from their jobs and Rose is none the wiser. On a trip to Florida, Roger is enthralled by Rose as she looks out over the ocean because she strikingly resembles the Lonely Maiden pose. Their love life is rekindled. Meanwhile, the three men hide their treasures in a shack on Charles' apartment roof so that they can go and view them at their leisure. However, when Roger looks at the painting, it doesn't inspire him like it once did. He smiles and remembers his wife. Meanwhile, in Copenhagen, a guard on duty passes The Lonely Maiden copy and looks at it, smiling.

Cast

Production

It was produced under the working title The Lonely Maiden. It was shot primarily in Boston, Massachusetts, and several scenes were filmed at the Worcester Art Museum, in Worcester, Massachusetts. [3] The painting The Lonely Maiden was created specifically for the film by artist Jeremy Lipking. [4] The cat painting and the Greek sculpture were also created specifically.

Release

The film had a tentative release date of May 29, 2009 before being shelved following the bankruptcy of its distributor, Yari Film Group. It debuted at the Edinburgh International Film Festival June 25, 2009 [5] and was released to DVD on November 24, 2009.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knokke-Heist</span> Municipality in Flemish Community, Belgium

Knokke-Heist is a municipality in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the towns of Heist-aan-Zee, Knokke, Duinbergen, Ramskapelle and Westkapelle. On January 1, 2006, Knokke-Heist had a total population of 34,063. The total area is 56.44 km2 which gives a population density of 603 inhabitants per km2. Knokke-Heist is located along the North Sea in a polder area on the Belgian border with the Netherlands. It is Belgium's best-known and most affluent seaside resort.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Walken</span> American actor (born 1943)

Christopher Walken is an American actor. His diverse work on stage and screen has earned him numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Tony Awards. His films have grossed more than $1.6 billion in the United States alone. In 2003, he was voted Number 34 in Channel 4's countdown of the 100 greatest movie stars of all time.

<i>Pollock</i> (film) 2000 film directed by Ed Harris

Pollock is a 2000 American independent biographical drama film centered on the life of American painter Jackson Pollock, his struggles with alcoholism, as well as his troubled marriage to his wife Lee Krasner. The film stars Ed Harris, Marcia Gay Harden, Jennifer Connelly, Robert Knott, Bud Cort, Molly Regan, and Sada Thompson, and was directed by Harris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcia Gay Harden</span> American actress (born 1959)

Marcia Gay Harden is an American actress. Her breakthrough came in the 1990 Coen brothers' film Miller's Crossing. For her portrayal of artist Lee Krasner in the 2000 biographical film Pollock, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She received a second Academy Award nomination for her performance as a troubled wife in the drama film Mystic River (2003). Her other notable film credits include The First Wives Club (1996), Flubber (1997), Space Cowboys (2000), Mona Lisa Smile (2003), and the Fifty Shades film series (2015–2018).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William H. Macy</span> American actor (born 1950)

William Hall Macy Jr. is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer. He is two-time Emmy Award and four-time Screen Actors Guild Award winner, and has been nominated for an Academy Award, a Drama Critics' Circle Award, and five Golden Globe Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art theft</span> Stealing of paintings or sculptures from museums

Art theft, sometimes called artnapping, is the stealing of paintings, sculptures, or other forms of visual art from galleries, museums or other public and private locations. Stolen art is often resold or used by criminals as collateral to secure loans. Only a small percentage of stolen art is recovered—an estimated 10%. Many nations operate police squads to investigate art theft and illegal trade in stolen art and antiquities.

<i>How to Steal a Million</i> 1966 film by William Wyler

How to Steal a Million is a 1966 American heist comedy film directed by William Wyler and starring Audrey Hepburn, Peter O'Toole, Eli Wallach, Hugh Griffith, and Charles Boyer. The film is set and was filmed in Paris, though the characters speak entirely in English. Hepburn's clothes were designed by Givenchy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Segal (artist)</span> American painter and sculptor (1924–2000)

George Segal was an American painter and sculptor associated with the pop art movement. He was presented with the United States National Medal of Arts in 1999.

Lori McCreary is an American film producer. She is CEO of the production company Revelations Entertainment, which she co-founded with actor Morgan Freeman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Worcester Art Museum</span> Art museum in Worcester, Massachusetts

The Worcester Art Museum houses over 38,000 works of art dating from antiquity to the present day and representing cultures from all over the world. The museum opened in 1898 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Its holdings include Roman mosaics, European and American art, and a major collection of Japanese prints. Since acquiring the John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection in 2013, it is also home to the second largest collection of arms and armor in the Americas.

<i>Welcome to Collinwood</i> 2002 American film

Welcome to Collinwood is a 2002 American caper comedy film written and directed by Anthony and Joe Russo and starring William H. Macy, Isaiah Washington, Sam Rockwell, Michael Jeter, Luis Guzmán, Patricia Clarkson, Andrew Davoli, George Clooney, Jennifer Esposito, and Gabrielle Union. It is a remake of the Oscar-nominated 1958 Italian film Big Deal on Madonna Street by Mario Monicelli.

<i>King of Texas</i> 2002 TV film

King of Texas is a 2002 American Western television film based on William Shakespeare's King Lear and directed by Uli Edel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Brown (artist)</span> American artist and painter

Roger Brown was an American artist and painter. Often associated with the Chicago Imagist groups, he was internationally known for his distinctive painting style and shrewd social commentaries on politics, religion, and art.

<i>Saint Michael Vanquishing Satan</i> Painting by Raphael (1518)

Saint Michael Vanquishing Satan is a painting by the Italian High Renaissance artist Raphael. It shows the archangel Michael standing on top of Satan's back with his right foot. The painting was commissioned by Pope Leo X and has been located in the Louvre in Paris since 1667.

<i>Christmas Cottage</i> 2008 American film

Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Cottage is a 2008 Christmas biopic directed by Michael Campus, the first film he had directed in more than 30 years. It stars Jared Padalecki as painter Thomas Kinkade and features Peter O'Toole, Marcia Gay Harden and Aaron Ashmore.

Alfred Leslie was an American painter and filmmaker. He first achieved success as an Abstract Expressionist painter, but changed course in the early 1960s and became a painter of realistic figurative paintings.

<i>Late for Dinner</i> 1991 film by W. D. Richter

Late for Dinner is a 1991 American science fiction drama film directed by W. D. Richter, starring Peter Berg, Brian Wimmer, and Marcia Gay Harden. The supporting cast includes Peter Gallagher and Richard Steinmetz, with Janeane Garofalo making her film debut in a brief, comical role as a cashier at a burger joint.

Jeremy Lipking is an American realist painter, born in Santa Monica, California on 2 November 1975.

<i>The Burnt Orange Heresy</i> 2019 crime thriller film

The Burnt Orange Heresy is a 2019 crime thriller film directed by Giuseppe Capotondi and with a screenplay by Scott Smith. The film is based on the book of the same name by Charles Willeford and stars Claes Bang, Elizabeth Debicki, Mick Jagger, and Donald Sutherland.

<i>Confess, Fletch</i> 2022 film by Greg Mottola

Confess, Fletch is a 2022 American crime comedy film directed by Greg Mottola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Zev Borow. Based on Gregory Mcdonald's 1976 novel of the same name, it stars Jon Hamm, Roy Wood Jr., Annie Mumolo, Ayden Mayeri, Lorenza Izzo, Kyle MacLachlan, and Marcia Gay Harden. It is the third installment in the Fletch series, following Fletch (1985) and Fletch Lives (1989), and the first not to star Chevy Chase.

References

  1. ↑ "Freeman, Walken and Macy chase Lonely Maidens!".
  2. ↑ Gate, Bobby (June 21, 2009). "Beverly actress scores plum role". Wicked Local (GateHouse Media).
  3. ↑ "Worcester Art Museum". www.worcesterart.org.
  4. ↑ Wolff, Rachel (May 1, 2009). "Planning a Romantic Getaway".
  5. ↑ "Event List | Edinburgh International Film Festival". www.edfilmfest.org.uk.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.