Portrait of an ex-con as a forty-something-year-old man. Dustin Hoffman gives a nervy performance as Max Dembo, a career thief freed after six years for armed robbery. Max wants love/respect/etc, but the system has him on a leash.
The cast in Straight Time, director Ulu Grosbard’s sun-drenched street drama, includes fresh-faced greats like Gary Busey, Kathy Bates, and Harry Dean Stanton, as a veteran crook sick of living an honest life. Theresa Russell is Jenny, a temp worker. She gives Max a chance at a job, and later, says “yes” to a date. Russell is gentle, a little naive, but strong-willed. She sees goodness in Max, but he’s an old dog struggling to learn new tricks. In one heartbreaking scene, Max is suddenly arrested by his grinning parole officer (a menacing, sadistic M. Emmet Walsh). What was Max’s crime? Doesn’t matter. The state giveth, and taketh away for any reason.
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