The central figure in Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind is an antihero. Well, he had a fluffed-up version of himself in his head, and that explains the title of the film. James Blaine Mooney, an art-school dropout, believed he was ‘the mastermind’ and that he had what it took to steal paintings from a local art museum. Throughout the film, you try to understand the motive behind James’ actions, but you eventually realize that there wasn’t really any. Well, maybe a little bit of proving himself to the world or just an act of rebellion, but none of it was the ultimate driving force. He did because he could, because he wanted to, and because he thought it would be cool to just get away with it. But does his heist plan work out? Let’s get into the details.
Spoiler Alert
How did the cops track down James?
James was a regular visitor at the local art museum. It was the 70s; there were no surveillance cameras, and a lousy security guard guaranteed easy access. He removed one small item from the museum just to check if it would catch anyone’s attention, and well, he got away with it. James teamed up with Guy Hickey and Larry Duffy to execute his master plan. He had been eyeing the Arthur Dove paintings at the museum, and he’d already checked that they were quite easy to take off from the wall. His plan was simple—Guy and Ronnie Gibson (the wildcard) would steal the paintings from the museum, Larry would wait for them in a stolen car, and they would just take off. They would ditch the stolen car, get in their own car, and meet James at the Echo. The problem was that James never considered the possibility that if one of the elements of his grand plan didn’t work out, then it would all just crumble. Also, Guy and Larry didn’t seem to have faith in Ronnie; they thought he was too young and too bold to carry out the plan without making any noise. But James was confident that Ronnie would succeed in pulling it off.
On the day of the heist, Larry ditched them after delivering the stolen car, and James had no choice but to be the one to wait in front of the museum in the stolen car. It was hilarious watching two men just take one painting after another in broad daylight with nothing but stockings covering their faces. A young girl had entered the room where the Arthur Dove paintings were kept, and Ronnie pulled out his gun and kept the girl from screaming for help. They try to hurry down the stairs with the four paintings, and it wasn’t easy. Visitors at the museum obviously noticed them, and they warned the security. Ronnie got caught up, but he managed to wriggle out of the situation. They should have sped away immediately, but James was too decent to ask the driver in the car in front of him to just move. So, Ronnie stepped down, flaunted his gun, and then finally took off. The robbery made it to the headlines of newspapers the very next day. The girl who was held at gunpoint narrated her side of the story on television. James’ father, a reputable judge, didn’t think the thieves had planned the heist thoroughly, and he wasn’t convinced that the abstract paintings were worth the trouble. Soon after leaving his parents’ house, James scoffed at his father’s remark; clearly, he shared a complex relationship with his father. Perhaps it was the burden of expectations that troubled him from a young age, or maybe he simply wanted to rebel against the authoritarian figure in his life. Clearly, James wasn’t an easy kid; his mother didn’t trust him when he had asked her for money. She suspected that he was lying, and she chose not to get his father involved because he wouldn’t have approved of it. But she couldn’t just refuse him; perhaps she felt guilty for not being a very present mother, or maybe she was still hopeful that her son would make something of his life soon. James stored the paintings in the farm, and just when he thought things would gradually go back to normalcy, cops showed up at his doorstep.
As it turned out, Ronnie had been arrested for a bank robbery, and he eventually confessed to being involved in the art theft as well. He had mentioned that James was the mastermind, and it was a good enough reason for the detectives to investigate. James dismissed their claims, stating that maybe Ronnie had some enmity with his father and that was why he tried to get him involved. Since they didn’t have a warrant, they couldn’t arrest James, and James used the little time he had left to help his wife, Terry, pack her things and take their sons along with her. Terry was heartbroken; she had no clue that her husband was involved in the robbery, and she didn’t know how to react. James begged her to spend a few days at his parents’ house, and she didn’t have a choice but to oblige. Tommy was close to his father, and while he couldn’t completely comprehend what was going on, he could sense that his father was in trouble. You can already guess the devastating impact that the whole incident would have on the little child. He chose to spend some more time with James before he was dropped off at his grandparents’ house. Although the little time that he’d spent with his father wasn’t fun. He was left in their neighbor’s car all by himself, and he watched some random men drag his father away.
What happened to the paintings?
James never considered that his robbery plan would even attract the local gangsters! Guy had contacted him and asked him for some more cash. James agreed to meet him, and he discovered that Guy was in contact with the local gangsters. He had been threatened to bring James to them. Since Ronnie had already revealed the names of those involved, it wasn’t difficult to track the robbers. The gang shoved James into their car and asked him where the paintings were. He didn’t have much choice but to reveal the location, and just like that everything he’d worked so hard for was gone. James lost the paintings and his family, and now even the cops were after him. James traveled to his friend’s place in the countryside. Fred was genuinely impressed with James’ daring plan. As a substitute teacher at the local school, his life was far from interesting, and James was his source of entertainment. Maude, his wife, didn’t want James to shelter in their house. It wasn’t easy for her to ask James to leave, but she had to for the sake of their own sanity. Also, Maude predicted that James intended on passing on the paintings to his thesis advisor, Professor Pruitt, his middleman, but he denied her theory (though it’s very likely that was his plan). After being asked to leave, James decided to visit his other friends from college, Claire and Joe, but they weren’t home. James was drifting from one place to another without any clear goal. He was running out of money, and he ended up asking Terry to wire him some money when he called in to check on his family. Terry refused to entertain him anymore. He tried to explain how everything he did was somehow rooted in his genuine love for his family. But clearly, that wasn’t the case. Well, he might have loved his family, but he didn’t really think about the trouble they would be in if he ever had to be on the run. He thought of himself, his pride, and his need to outsmart the people around him.
Was James arrested?
James had run out of options, so he decided to move to Canada and live in the commune that Fred had mentioned his brother had joined. It wasn’t something James wanted to do, but it was the only option he’d left. Terry didn’t want to speak to him; his sons loved him, but he wasn’t in a position to go back to them, and he knew that he wouldn’t even get any help from his parents now that he was a fugitive. The money James had left wasn’t enough to buy a ticket to Toronto, so he ended up stealing cash from an elderly woman. He’d seen her at a local eatery and noticed the pile of cash in her purse. She tried to call for help, but as a result of the protest march, no one really paid attention to her cry. Throughout The Mastermind, news clips or television reports from the Vietnam War are played. During a bus ride, we witnessed a navy man having to leave his wife and newborn for the sake of duty to his country while James was fleeing from a crime that he could only afford to indulge in because he came from privilege. James didn’t have to get enlisted, thanks to his influential father, and while the people of the country were begging the Nixon government to stop the war, James was caught up in his own trouble that was unnecessary, silly, and futile.
In The Mastermind’s ending, James was arrested along with the other protestors. He tried to explain that he wasn’t involved in the protests, but the cops didn’t care to listen to him. It was poetic justice. In the end he too had to pay the price for a war that he didn’t seem to be affected by or even care about. Until the very end, somewhere deep down, even if you were rooting for the protagonist (like we always do even if they are flawed and morally dubious), the film reminds the audience that, well, he deserved this. The Mastermind hints at the possibility that the cops would eventually figure out that James was the art thief that made it to the headlines, and this time, even his privilege didn’t likely protect him.
