cult film freak: BURT REYNOLDS AND CASEY SIEMASZKO ARE 'BREAKING IN'

Burt Reynolds in BREAKING IN Year: 1989 Rating: ****1/2

After a string of good but neglected action flicks as a character either a decade younger or else acting that way, Burt Reynolds plays a professional safe cracker at sixty-one while in his early fifties: a smooth, experienced veteran of life, and without a distracting toupee: in fact Burt's Ernie Mullins is both gray-haired and slightly balding...

Overall his performance is a non-performance, natural and laidback, perfect for LOCAL HERO director Bill Forsyth, making another hangout indie: this one written by indie guru John Sayles and co-starring Casey Siemaszko as the young wannabe burglar who meets Ernie in one of many great sequences, seeming like connected short stories, each with a beginning, middle and end...

Burt Reynolds & Casey Siemaszko in BREAKING IN

Which are the partnered-up heists/lessons-in-crime (that provides BREAKING IN a double-meaning) from a suburban home to a grocery store to a roller rink and other quirky targets around Portland, Oregon, a town that, like the story, is subtle and parenthetical, paced like a European art film befitting the Scottish auteur...

And although young Casey occasionally overplays the naive dolt, he's a perfect fit for an old guy dying to discuss past crimes, and has made a semi-retirement out of taking risks that are never too suspenseful and yet, as a buddy comedy, the heists keeps the audience intrigued and always guessing.