Any Day Now Review – Directorial Debut Delivers Entertaining, Amusing High-Jinks

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Category: Film

Published on Monday, 17 March 2025 11:36

Written by Janet Walker

Any Day Now presents a fresh take on the 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Heist, in Boston, Massachusetts, and as the crime has never been solved, it is a fictionalized account of what might have been.

The film begins with a close-up of Marty Lyons, played by Paul Guilfoyle, and it is obvious he is being questioned. We find out, as the unseen feds explain, that they are looking for information on the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Heist, and as he explains, being in the slammer is an airtight alibi, and then he is asked about Steve Baker, played by Taylor Gray, and to hear Marty explain it, the kid broke his heart.

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The film then moves to present day and a man is running. He is cutting through neighborhoods, back alleys, restaurants kitchens, and then he pops out the back door, believing he has alluded his pursuer only to find he is waiting for him. This is when we find out Steve is running from collectors.

Steve is in debt, in fact, it is worse than just being in debt, he is in debt to a drug dealer. It seems that Steve, a part-time security guard, and part-time guitarist is supporting his best friend and the lead vocalist in their band, and it is costly.  

So, this morning, Steve is writing lyrics in a bar, when Marty Lyons approaches him. Unbeknownst to Steve, Marty owns the drug dealer than Steve owes. So, when Marty asks him to come along for the ride, it's not a request. This is when we understand that the debt has left him leveraged, and his job made him vulnerable.

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After about a week of hanging out with his new gangster buddies, Marty asks him the question and Steve must decide, will you help us rob the museum or not. Every crime has this moment, the point of no return. Unbeknownst to Marty, Steve and another 20-something security guard have been clowning around the museum during the night-time hours, in what we believe is a game, as they bet on whether they can approach the paintings without setting off the sensors. And we see him, in what appears to be a Twister-style left foot red, right hand blue movement across the floor inching closer to the Rembrandts. On this night, Steve loses, and the sensors sound, and he is caught.

Trying to keep up with his life, that seems to be spiraling out of control, he and his roommate, Danny, played by Armando Rivera, are playing a gig, when Marty takes over the stage and blows the youngish crowd away with his rendition of "Dirty Water."  When Steve congratulates him, Danny's girlfriend Sara, played by Alexandra Templer, arrives and Marty tells her what kind of person she is, and Steve, who is secretly in love with her, runs out to comfort her. He finally realizes that she is exactly the way Marty describes, and she confesses she stole the money Danny gave her to pay him.

So now, it is one week before the heist, and Marty gets arrested. Unfortunately, Kevin McDonald, played by Thomas Kee, arrives, and explains that now you are all working for him. So, Marty's crew a group of lovers, muggers, and thieves' misfits, are joined by the McDonald thugs and the heist is on.

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As the film is loosely based on the actual art heist, what follows is the theft and the surprising ending.

The directorial debut for Eric Aronson, Any Day Now captures the attention from the beginning scenes and maintains the same level of entertaining interest throughout. There are no slow moments, it is mad, amusing, dash from beginning to end.

Any Day Now is based on the single largest unsolved property theft in the world, and the thieves who walked away with hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of art. The museum is still offering a $10 million reward for information leading to the recovery of the stolen works.

2025 is the 35th anniversary of the heist and Any Day Now will have its premiere in Boston, Massachusetts, commemorating the still unsolved crime.  Amusing, with solid performances that are engaging, Any Day Now takes the seriousness of the crime, lightens it up, and presents an engaging comedic drama. See it.

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Country: U.S.

Language: English.

Runtime: 81 minutes.

Director: Eric Aronson.

Producer: Eric Aronson, Mark Donadio, Dana Scott, Emily Sheehan.

Executive Producer: Jan Egleson, Paul Guilfoyle.

Writer: Eric Aronson.

Cast: Paul Guilfoyle, Taylor Gray, Alexandra Templer, Thomas Kee, Armando Rivera, Shawn Fitzgibbon, David Pridemore, Mike Bash, Shaun Bedgood, Georgia Lyman, Thomas Philip O'Neill, Ting, Sheriden Thomas, Naheem Garcia, Michael Jibrin, John O'Halloran.

Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade.  A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five screenplays, "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She is completing the non-fiction narrative, "Unholy Alliances: A True Crime Story," which is expected to be released in early 2025. She is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a former member of the International Federation of Journalists.