A Streamlined, Solidly Built ‘Opportunists’

Given the number of indifferent films that leave the Sundance Film Festival loaded with honors, it’s something of a shock to come across a small gem that played the event but somehow slipped in under everyone’s radar. That’s the case with “The Opportunists.”

A character-driven, neo-noir crime drama, “The Opportunists” is a spare and classical piece of work, made with deliberation and pared down to essentials. For first-time filmmaker Myles Connell, who wrote as well as directed, it’s an extremely promising debut; for veteran star Christopher Walken, it’s one of the best, most compelling performances in a long and active career.

Working in the Sunnyside, Queens, neighborhood where he grew up, Walken gives a beautiful display of nuanced, minimalist acting as Vic Kelly, owner/proprietor/sole employee of Vic’s Garage, a decent guy with a shady past trying to straighten out his life.

Over the course of 40 films during a 20-year-plus career, Walken has learned to make his ghostly face into a subtle, expressive instrument. An ex-con who doesn’t smile much and says less, someone almost submerged in worry and concern, Walken’s Vic still makes a powerful emotional connection. His somber affect seems to attract catastrophe; you know things will inevitably go wrong for him, it’s just a question of how wrong.

Vic definitely has things to be worried about. Though he’s clearly a good mechanic--the film’s opening sequence showing him working on a vintage Buick Riviera leaves no doubt of that--Vic can’t seem to catch a break financially. Always strapped for cash, his habit of bouncing checks has made “wait a day and it’ll be good” into an much-repeated mantra, exasperating both his daughter, Miriam (an excellent Vera Farmiga), and his tavern-owner girlfriend, Sally Mahon (an unexpected Cyndi Lauper).

Then, out of nowhere, Michael Lawler (Peter McDonald) shows up and things get worse. (Not out of nowhere exactly but direct from Dublin, director Connell’s birthplace as well.) Michael says he’s a distant cousin, but it’s not family that’s attracted him, it’s Vic’s reputationas a major professional thief.

The truth is more mundane. Vic was recently released from prison after serving 8 1/2 years for burglary and is not eager to go back. But, like a baby-faced tempter, the aggrieved and irritating Michael not only keeps egging Vic toward crime but also makes common cause with a neighborhood lout named Pat Duffy (“The Tao of Steve’s” Donal Logue), who says he knows about a sweet job that can’t miss.

Not unexpectedly, circumstances force Vic to take the plunge; “the regular citizen thing,” he memorably admits, “is not going too well.” With the help of been-around former associate Mort Stein (a wonderful cameo from Tom Noonan), he starts to practice his safecracking skills.

“The Opportunists” is not shy about spending time on the mechanics of crime, and those sequences, tense and compelling, are among its best. But robbery is only the turning point, not the climax of this carefully made film, which is always more concerned about the people behind the action.

If anything characterizes filmmaker Connell’s style, it’s the care with which he’s done everything. No word of dialogue is excessive or out of place, no character is anything less than convincingly cast. While some of the plotting is without a doubt familiar, Connell has treated everything he touches with so much old-fashioned care and concern that the results click together as smoothly as the tumblers of an old-fashioned safe. The kind that’s built to last.

* MPAA rating: R, for language. Times guidelines: It’s more genteel than otherwise.

‘The Opportunists’

Christopher Walken: Victor Kelly

Peter McDonald: Michael Lawler

Cyndi Lauper: Sally Mahon

Vera Farmiga: Miriam Kelly

Donal Logue: Pat Duffy

Released by First Look Pictures. Director Myles Connell. Producers John Lyons, Tim Perell. Executive producers Jonathan Demme, Peter Saraf, Edward Saxon, David Forrest, Beau Rogers. Screenplay Myles Connell. Cinematographer Teo Maniaci. Editor Andy Kier. Costumes Kasia Walicka Maimone. Music Kurt Hoffman. Production design Debbie De Villa. Art director Nicolas Berry. Set decorator Stobain Flaherty. Running time: 1 hour, 29 minutes.

In limited release.