Out of Sight by Curtis Edmonds -- blueduck@hsbr.org
Chances are, you've either been in this situation or know someone who has -- or both. It happens all the time -- a smart, talented, and bright person who makes a bad decision about a relationship. There's always the question, "How could somebody so smart do something so stupid?" And there really isn't a good answer to that (not even if you're the President). Sometimes your heart gets you into situations that your head can't get you out of.
Out of Sight is ostensibly a heist movie, but that's not where the real action is. The plan is for bank robber par excellence Jack Foley (the dashing and charming George Clooney) to break out of a Florida prison and, along with partner Buddy Bragg (Ving Rhames), rob a Detroit multimillionaire (Albert Brooks, who proves that even multimillionaires can be schmucks). And if the movie had been about that, it might have been a good middle-of-the-road action picture.
Instead, one tiny little thing goes wrong, and that one tiny little thing elevates Out of Sight far beyond the level of the ordinary. Deputy United States Marshal Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez) shows up at the jailbreak to deliver a court summons and ends up being stuffed in the truck with Foley on the long ride back to Miami. They're in a tight space, romantically lit by the brakelights, Clooney's hand is on Lopez's thigh ("but in a nice way"), and even though she's a cop and he's a robber, and even though he must smell wretched, there are some sparks there. It sounds like it's a ludicrous situation for romance to develop, but it does. And it's wholly believable on film, even though it doesn't sound like it on paper.
Example: There's a scene early on where Clooney and Rhames are trapped in a Miami hotel, hemmed in by the FBI and a bucketful of slow-moving senior citizens. Lopez's job is to watch the elevator and yell if she spots Clooney. The door opens, their eyes meet... and she lets him go. Sounds stupid, right? But you have to see the way their eyes meet to understand what they're both thinking, what they're feeling, how things might work out under different circumstances. It's a scene where the actors, deprived for a moment of the routinely splendid Elmore Leonard dialogue, have to sell the movie -- and they do so effectively.
If the Clooney-Lopez romance was all there was to Out of Sight, it would still be an entertaining movie. Clooney is always fun to watch, and (like Harrison Ford) at his best when asked to play a charming rogue. Lopez is wonderful, somehow finding a way to be hard-nosed and sensuous at the same time. The chemistry between the two is captivating -- but at the same time, they're probably the least interesting characters in the movie. The strength of the movie is in the supporting characters, parts that are blessed with meaty Leonard dialogue, that are well-cast, and are entertaining as can be.
You see the craftsmanship in big roles like Clooney's partner Buddy, who can't stop confessing his sins to his sister. After his breakthrough role in Pulp Fiction, Rhames has usually made to play tough-guy roles, and it's a treat to see him in a meatier part. Don Cheadle, effective and smart as a small-screen district attorney in Picket Fences, has the tough-guy role here, and manages to be menacing and comical at turns. But even the smaller roles are well done: Steve Zahn as the stoner getaway driver, Luis Guzmán (the bartender in Boogie Nights) as a dim escapee, Dennis Farina as Lopez's overprotective father, Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Keaton dropping in from parallel Leonard universes.
Out of Sight is a treat, like a big glass of rich hot chocolate during a Michigan winter. Intelligent, well acted, well scripted, and with an eye for human foibles and an ear for snappy dialogue, Out of Sight delivers what most summer movies seem to have lost in the mail. Stephen Soderburgh has created a sparking gem of a movie -- which deserves more than to be shuffled in with the dull, lifeless films we've seen so far this year.
Rating: A
--
-- Curtis Edmonds blueduck@hsbr.org
Movie Reviews: http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Curtis+Edmonds
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"Tabasco sauce is to bachelor cooking what forgiveness is to sin."
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