OUT OF SIGHT (Universal) Starring: George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle, Steve Zahn, Albert Brooks, Dennis Farina, Isaiah Washington, Catherine Keener. Screenplay: Scott Frank, based on the novel by Elmore Leonard. Producers: Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher. Director: Steven Soderbergh. MPAA Rating: R (profanity, violence, sexual situations) Running Time: 120 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
No previous adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel -- and there have been a couple of pretty good ones recently in GET SHORTY and JACKIE BROWN -- has captured the author's unique flavor as effectively as OUT OF SIGHT. Though Leonard usually writes about criminal characters, he doesn't exactly write crime novels; though his stories are often quite funny, he doesn't exactly write comic novels; though his narratives always come together in a way that makes sense, he doesn't exactly let tight plotting get in the way of an amusing tangent. Leonard is his own literary animal: sometimes sordid, sometimes smirking, always sly.
You'll find every one of those contradictions and then some in OUT OF SIGHT, a marvelously meandering caper with rhythms all its own. The story focuses on the aftermath of the Florida prison escape of career bank robber Jack Foley (George Clooney). In the wrong place at the right time is U. S. marshal Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez), who ends up sharing a cramped trunk ride with Jack when his friend Buddy (Ving Rhames) commandeers Karen's car for the escape. Surprisingly, the ride proves intriguing to both parties. Karen manages to free herself and gets on the case of re-apprehending Jack, though she isn't sure whether she wants him for business or pleasure. Jack, meanwhile, prepares for his next big score, though he isn't sure whether he's more interested in scoring cash or Karen.
OUT OF SIGHT certainly works best as a quirky comedy, with screenwriter Scott Frank (who also adapted GET SHORTY) providing great material for a superb supporting cast. Steve Zahn steals every one of his scenes as Jack and Buddy's perpetually stoned accomplice Glenn, channeling Crispin Glover with considerably more appealing goofiness. Also on hand are Albert Brooks as the white collar crook whose home is our heroes' next target, Don Cheadle as edgy partner-in-crime Maurice "Snoopy" Miller, and Dennis Farina as Karen's protective father. There are even a couple of sharp unbilled cameos, including Michael Keaton reprising his JACKIE BROWN character and a final-scene appearance by another veteran of a previous Leonard adaptation. Good scripts make even mediocre actors look better; Frank's script in the hands of these actors is a hilarious gem.
But OUT OF SIGHT isn't just a comedy. It's also a love story, if a very odd one. The relationship between Jack and Karen is the heart of the film, a dangerous set-up since the two characters share exactly two scenes for all practical purposes. Both scenes, however, are perfectly executed: the trunk-trapped initial conversation (photographed by Elliot Davis in seductive tail-light red), and a meeting in a hotel bar which fluidly shifts to a closer encounter. Clooney has never looked more comfortable or charismatic on the big screen, nor has Lopez, for that matter. With a clever nod to the fast-attraction nature of film romances (in a reference to the Redford-Dunaway thriller THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR), OUT OF SIGHT gets maximum mileage out of the pairing of its stars in a believable fast-attraction film romance.
There are also plenty of crime caper elements mixed in with the comedy and romance, including no small amount of bloodshed, but even then the film seems entirely cohesive. Credit director Steven Soderbergh with crafting a distinctive, unifying look and feel from Frank's deftly back-tracking script. Most frequently he employs an abrupt freeze-framing device, usually to mark transitions between scenes and locations. In Soderbergh's capable hands the freeze-frames never feel gimmicky, instead playing as chapter stops on Leonard's snappy punch lines. There's nothing particularly deep or intensely memorable about OUT OF SIGHT -- indeed, the pace flags a bit at times as it tries to keep up with all its characters -- but it's the kind of film that punches holes in the notion that "entertaining" and "smart" are mutually exclusive adjectives for a summer film. This is pure pulp pleasure, the cinematic equivalent of great beach reading... and what better way is there to describe the work of Elmore Leonard?
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 SIGHT plans: 9.
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