But c'mon, name a classic heist/caper movie that doesn't up the emotional stakes in some manner not inherent to the job itself (eg. Love interest, betrayal, apocalypse, even just the time honoured 'one last job' etc). I didn't say it would necessarily be dull and empty overall but the plot itself would. There's no way the audience would care enough about the impossibility of the job or the crackness of the team, because it's all just thrust upon them wih no prior context. Now, of courae, it could still be a great film minus the Cobb psychodrama, but there'd be something else there in its place.