Masterplan Review: Stanley Tucci Leads a Kitsch Heist Comedy to Steal the Mona Lisa on Prime Video
Prime Video released the heist comedy Masterplan, directed by Thomas Vincent and produced by Gaumont and Amazon MGM Studios, featuring a fictional attempt to steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre by an unorthodox family trio consisting of Stanley Tucci, Simona Tabasco, and Victor Belmondo.
The narrative pairs the two characters as they discover they are brother and sister, subsequently drafted by their dandy English bandit father, played by Stanley Tucci, to execute a final museum heist.
Historical Precedents of Mona Lisa Thefts
While the film constructs a fictional family dynamic around stealing Leonardo da Vinci’s masterwork, the Mona Lisa has only been stolen once in reality. On August 21, 1911, Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian decorator who had briefly worked at the Louvre as a glazier, entered the museum on its weekly closing day wearing staff work clothes. As documented by Martin Cid Magazine citing German outlet Filmstarts, Peruggia removed the painting from the Salon Carré, took it out of its frame in a service staircase, and left through a staff exit. The disappearance went unnoticed until the following day when a painter arrived to reproduce it. Peruggia was apprehended in Florence in December 1913.
Critical Reception of the Prime Video Release
Télérama described the feature as a sometimes caricatural heist comedy that leaves viewers uncertain of its ultimate direction, noting that Stanley Tucci visibly enjoys playing a dandy bandit who cooks for his children and delivers commentary on fatherhood and Italian food. The review observed that the younger cast members face heavier burdens with the material’s dialogue, resulting in a production that remains kitsch and leaves audiences wanting more.
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More on Mona Lisa
The actor plays a master thief who enlists the help of his children—who didn’t even know he existed—to whisk Da Vinci’s masterpiece out of the Louvre. https://t.co/v5JYLuJi5u
Thomas Vincent’s Mona Lisa-heist comedy-thriller MASTERPLAN with Stanley Tucci, Simona Tabasco, and Victor Belmondo is on Prime Video. pic.twitter.com/gnERqW8824