Steal Away and Die

Orphans Prosper and Bo run away from their nasty relatives and take refuge in the backstreets of Venice. There they fall in with the Thief Lord and his kid gang, who live in an abandoned cinema and make their money from stealing to order. But the boys' aunt and uncle won't let them get away so easily. Soon they have a private detective on their trail and a whole heap of trouble brewing when they are asked to nick a wooden wing for a shadowy count.

Claus has no idea how to pace the film, failing to elucidate the audience about why the two leads are running away in the first place and why they are heading for Venice. Everything in the movie moves too fast; so you never get a chance to figure out what's going on. I suspect that was a conscious decision for the director, in a clumsy attempt to paper over the massive plot holes. What remains is a shallow boys' own adventure that pits children against adults with the most predictable results. The cast consists of a bunch of teeth-and-eyes stage school brats and seasoned actors that should know better. There's nothing here you could call characterisation and that means you never feel for any of the players. It's never made clear what nationality they are supposed to be and it seems odd that a bunch of posh English schoolkids are on the lam in Italy. But that is only one of many inconsistencies that plague the film. The result is that after you've seen all ninety-eight minutes of the film, you'll feel cheated.

The gang of kids in the film are standard stage school moppets; photogenic but bland. None of them have the spark that makes a child performance worth watching. Dakota Fanning would hardly be shaking in her boots faced with this lot. They all have very nice diction, but don't have any idea how to convey emotion with their voices. Rollo Weeks proves Weeks by name, weak by nature with his performance as the titular Thief Lord. You can tell what he's trying to do; he is confident and has a reasonable amount of swagger. But he is that bit too young to have tapped into his sex appeal, so doesn't have the requisite charisma to convince as a magnetic leader. Aaron Johnson, who plays Prospero is slightly more emotionally involved in his role, but is still very bland, essentially hitting his marks and saying his lines. George McKay, who plays Riccio seems to think that having a horrible set of false teeth means he doesn't have to do any acting. The only girl in the gang, played by Alice Connor hasn't really got anything to do and the token black character played by Lathaniel Dyer is in a similar situation. Jasper Harris is exactly the kind of blonde acting moppet I despise on principal. He is a pretty little boy who will no doubt get lots of work on the strength of his looks, but he is too aware of what they can do for him already. Consequently, he plays cute most of the time.

The score by Nigel Clarke and Michael Csanyi-Wills is the only aspect of the production that treats the story like the swashbuckling adventure it should be. The brooding strings and swooping flutes add much needed excitement and Venice is given a sweeping orchestral introduction. Twinkling piano and chimes try to draw out the magic of the story, while operatic flourishes attempt to add depth. The music is let down a little by a cheesy teenybopper song over the end credits, but is otherwise of high quality. It's a shame the rest of the film doesn't match up.