70 minutes isn’t a long time at all for a feature-length film, but those 70 minutes that are packed into director Josh Safdie’s indie work, “The Pleasure of Being Robbed,” are far too many. The movie is centered around Elenore (played by co-writer Elenore Hendricks) and her kleptomania that may or may not be caused by something deeper going on in her psyche. She steals not to profit, but just to peek into strangers’ lives. Elenore steals a lady’s purse, then a father’s gift for her daughter which consists of a bag containing a dog and some kittens, and eventually she works her way into stealing someone’s car keys just to see what the inside of the victim’s car looks like. It’s literally like watching someone’s bad home movies. At this point, Safdie himself appears as “Josh,” Elenore’s friend who convinces her to drive him back to his apartment, even though she has no clue how to drive. They manage to make it out of the city and back to his pad, and this takes up the majority of the movie and feels like it’s going in real time. Hell, it may actually be. There is no “plot” here, no real tale behind the characters, and no reason to care for anyone involved. This is indie filmmaking at its most uninspired, which of course has led some other critics to absolutely gush over it. But don’t believe the quotes on the back of the box; there is no pleasure of being robbed here, especially when you’ve just had 70 minutes of your life stolen.
