[4.0]
Like the best of Soderbergh’s films, this is a clever, entertaining screenplay brought to life by a tongue-in-cheek directorial flair that manages to work in eccentric flourishes while still allowing the performers’ personalities to shine through. This is hardly an “important” film, and the details of the plot are far less important than the emotional heart of the story: tough female US Marshall Karen Cisco struggles with her romantic feelings for a man she can never have: escaped bank robber Jack Foley. George Clooney may be the first actor to successfully channel Cary Grant’s suaveness, and boy does he master it. Clooney oozes confidence (but kept at bay by a realistic tinge of doubt), and its hard not to fall in love with him, despite his only criminal regret being that he gets caught. Jennifer Lopez manages to balance both her hard-edged professional personality with her lonely, fragile personal life and creates a strong character with a sympathetic weak-spot. Sure there are some serious gender problems with how she is constructed, but Soderbergh is unconcerned with realities and simply delivers a neat, clean Hollywood romance. Don Cheadle, Ving Rhames, Albert Brooks, and Dennis Farina are all great in their supporting roles, but its un-billed cameos by Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Keaton (reprising his Jackie Brown role of Ray Nicolette) that are the most memorable. The editing during Jack and Karen’s unplanned romantic dinner (and eventual sex) is wonderfully unusual, spinning the couple’s romance into a dreamy blur of time and place, with both scenes mixing together in unconventional beauty. Overall, the film may simply be light entertainment, but its flawlessly executed.
burning retina 