ENTRAPMENT **½ (out of four) -a review by Bill Chambers ( entrapment@filmfreakcentral.net )
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starring Sean Connery, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Ving Rhames, Will Patton screenplay by Ron Bass and William Broyles, Jr. directed by Jon Amiel
Sean Connery is permitted use of his native accent in Entrapment (or, as Connery pronounces it, Entchraphmint) while theWelsh Zeta-Jones is not. Her character's exotic beauty and worldly ways are at odds with her bland, midwest dialect. It doesn't help that Zeta-Jones is no Meryl Streep when it comes to vocal gymnastics. But then, most (men, at least) aren't likely to notice that Zeta-Jones' lips are even moving as they watch Entrapment; slinking between security devices like a hungry feline (she's a cat-burglar, har har), Zeta-Jones is adept at real gymnastics. Her impeccable physique takes centre stage in a film that elevates thievery into performance art.
Connery plays Mac, an infamous robber baron who takes Zeta-Jones, as rookie thief Virginia Baker ("Gin"), under his wing. She wants to steal a priceless Chinese mask; as Connery proves quickly, she's flexible but not as cunning as he is. I should mention at this point that Gin is a double agent, if you will: she's working for the treasury to bring Mac down. Her tutelage is a ruse.
Or is it? Twenty minutes into Entrapment, I determined just what kind of movie it is: the type that throws red herring after red herring at the audience, peeling away story layers like pieces of a Chinese box. Yet the experience of watching Entrapment is not nearly as frustrating as sitting through the similarly plotted Wild Things, a film that unwrapped its bandages only to reveal the invisible man. (Entrapment, unlike Wild Things, is not out to deconstruct a genre; for all its twists and turns, it is a conventional, mainstream picture.) One element of Entrapment does remain pleasantly constant throughout, and that is the bizarre tango between Connery and Zeta-Jones. Whatever their motivations, it's clear that they're smitten with one another from their first scene together. (Aside: note the phallic imagery the first time Mac meets Gin-she is naked in this scene, and his gun provides an amusing and subtle gag.) While their romance doesn't quite conjure memories of such old-fashioned pairings as Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, the two actors achieve a level of intimacy that Eastwood could not with any of his young, female co-stars from the recent True Crime. (I mention Eastwood-who is close in age and stature to Connery-only to emphasize the May-December nineties trend; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, though the time is nigh for both men to admit their age on screen, as Beatty did in Bulworth.) Entrapment also features a freakish performance from Canadian actor Maury Chaykin, who invests his bit part (as a Confuscious-quoting guru to burglars) with a ferocious energy that recalls early Nicolas Cage.
Jon Amiel has had a spotty career (his Copycat is a series of missed or botched opportunities). Entrapment is directed efficiently but only the set pieces show real visual flair. I felt the break-and-enter sequences in DePalma's Mission: Impossible were the best things about it; Entrapment's are similarly thrilling. For the Chinese Mask number (which left me breathless), the filmmakers may have created a new sport: laser ballet. I also enjoyed the extensive training before the second heist: movies of this ilk rarely acknowledge the rehearsals that take place before the main events.
-May, 1999
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