If you've seen any heist movie, you'll know the score: a crook opts for one final job that'll be his ticket out of the criminal world, and things don't quite go to plan. However, with a wink to the audience, The World Is Yours is more Ocean's Eleven than Heat – a flamboyant European caper from French-Greek director Romain Gavras.

Born into a life of crime, a fed-up François (Karim Leklou) has set his sights on expanding the ice-pop brand Mister Freeze into North Africa. All he wants, he tells love interest Lamya (Oulaya Amamra), is a crack at a normal life: a medium-sized house, a reliable job, maybe even a pool. If he can just pull off one last job, delivering drugs from Spain to Paris, he'll have the money to get out.

Standing in his way to normalcy is his overbearing mother, Danny (Isabelle Adjani, effortlessly cool in bug-eyed sunglasses), an expert safebreaker and petty criminal who heads up teams of women who steal the latest Prada from department stores. Rounding out the kooky ensemble is a hilarious Vincent Cassel as Henri, a budding conspiracy theorist, who is Danny's ex and François's father-figure.

Boasting a truckload of swagger, The World Is Yours walks a delicate line between silly and serious, tragedy and comedy, never wholly succumbing to either side and a better film for it. There is plenty of socio-political commentary going on in the background – on the subject of terrorism, nationalism and immigration – and, while these moments of hard realism can jar with the film's jovial campness, for the most part, Gavras pulls it off. It's a shame the climactic heist is over before you know it, but this frantic joyride through a modern, fractured Europe manages to be very funny, very stylish, and, surprisingly, very sweet.

Screened on Fri 1 Mar as part of the Glasgow Film Festival 2019. Selected release from Fri 26 Apr.