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As Bob, the good thief of the title, he plays a gambler and sometime criminal who finds himself out of luck and out of heroin, his drug of choice. Bob's the kind of guy who claims he won his Picasso painting in a bet with the artist himself. They were at a bullfight; Bob, being Bob, bet on the bull.

When we meet him, his current losing streak has gone on longer than the others. That's why -- even though his police chief pal Roger (Tcheky Karyo) regretfully warns him that the next offense will mean jail -- Bob agrees to mastermind the theft of some priceless paintings hanging in a Monte Carlo casino.

"The Good Thief" is a remake of "Bob Le Flambeur," a French film made in 1955 by Jean-Pierre Melville, whose wonderful "Le Cercle Rouge" recently played Atlanta. This time, the director is Neal Jordan, who's reshaped the material to fit his weakness for almost-lost souls. As we saw in "The Crying Game" and "Mona Lisa," Jordan can be a redemption junkie. That predilection also explains the title: The good thief was the one on Jesus' right at the Crucifixion, the one who was promised last-minute salvation.

Bob's possible redemption comes through his kindness to a 17-year-old named Anne (Nutsa Kukhianidze, looking like she just walked off the set of a '60s New Wave film). Confident as only beautiful teenage girls can be, she's certain she can take care of herself. Bob knows better and becomes her protector. Like a Bogart character, he's a moral immoralist.

Jordan makes good use of the South-of-France setting. He drives us down the same picturesque winding roads that Cary Grant and Grace Kelly shared in "To Catch a Thief." He takes us into the ragged back streets of the Riviera, where a dark bar is slashed by the brilliant reds, blues and yellows of a pool table. He makes "The Good Thief" look and feel like a better movie than it actually is.

Jordan surrounds Nolte with a strong supporting cast -- Karyo's empathetic cop, Kukhianidze's insouciant hooker-in-the-making. He also throws a few cinephile curves. That's director Emir Kusterica ("The Widow of Saint Pierre") as the heist's computer whiz, and that's the directing team of Mark and Michael Polish ("Twin Falls Idaho") as twisted twins with a burglary scheme of their own.

Nolte is perfectly cast as this charming loser. The problem is, he knows it. Having gone through his own downward spirals, Nolte recognizes this could be The Role that turns everything around, like John Travolta's in "Pulp Fiction" or Bruce Willis' in "The Sixth Sense." It's the comeback his Oscar-nominated performance in "Affliction" was supposed to deliver.

Nolte is like Martin Scorsese at last month's Oscars -- it means too much to him. Some of the character's raffish attractiveness comes through, but we also sense his pain -- the actor's, not the character's. Nolte is heartbreakingly eager here, and his neediness permeates the picture.

At one point, Roger says of Bob, "Everyone likes Bob. That's his problem." Everyone likes Nick, too -- except, perhaps, Nick.