A weak plot still makes a viable vehicle for a couple of great performances with some unbeatable screen chemistry and a good old fashioned plot twist at the end
Golden Globe nominated Demi Moore teams up with Oscar/BAFTA/Golden Globe film legend Sir Michael Caine for a riotous romp of a heist thriller. Michael Radford (nominated for Best Director Oscar for “Postino, Il”) directs this very classy inside-job, bait and switch routine and turns it into a battle of the very sexy sexes as heart throbs Caine and Moore duke it out from opposite ends of the socio-economic spectrum. Both are at their best and the screen chemistry is atomic.
The setting of Edward Anderson’s story is the Lon Di Diamond works, a sort of nebulous and all-powerful center for the world’s diamond distribution business. This is one of the fuzzy details of this mission impossible that we are asked to overlook. There will be more as the shaky plot unfolds and teeters on the edge of Diane Keaton’s recent stinker “Mad Money,” while always pulling away at the last moment through the shear heavy lifting of Caine’s and Moore’s acting.
The diamond works is staffed with the usual array of stuffy, pompous, fat and powerful Englishmen. Two of these have the combination to the incredibly strong and very sexy (if you like that sort of thing) diamond vault that has never even come remotely close to being violated because these guys are so smart and so coldly professional. Well, most of the time, that is.
The company in insured by another pompous, fat Englishman who is rolling in dough through some machinations that become increasingly suspect as time goes on. In fact, there is more to him than meets the eye, just as there is more to Mr. Hobbs, the janitor (Caine). If you have seen the (formerly) working class Sir Michael play any actor, you know he plays this janitor to the hilt. He has the anger and he has the drive. Nobody will stop him, no matter how big their cigar.
Demi Moore plays the talented, loyal and hard working Laura Quinn who comes up with all of the great ideas the fat guys with cigars can’t figure out. Even so, she is passed over for promotion because the boss is, well, stupid. But that is the whole point; the fat cat gets it right in the cigar hole. The bigger they are….well, you know the rest. But at what cost to Mr. Hobbs and Ms. Quinn?
Cinematography is by Oscar nominated Richard Greatrex (“Shakespeare in Love, 1998) and is a thrill to behold. The timing is Hitchcockian with a touch of Sherlock Holmes. Footsteps up and down stairways tick off the seconds while the perp rifles the office for the secret documents, slipping behind the door at the last minute.
And then there’s the diamonds---piles and piles of them. A lost treasure of the little gritties waiting for the right moment to be liberated through the most unlikely circumstances. The bank vault is covered by the first generation of mini-cams, but, wait, there is a small window of opportunity. What counts in the end is the derring-do of underdogs Caine and Moore, who team up against the longest of odds to pull off the heist of a lifetime; that is until they have to confront each other with the awful truth. You see, there is always more to the greatest diamond heist than meets the eye. After all, money isn’t everything.
Reminiscent of Caine’s and Sir Lawrence Olivier’s immortal “Sleuth,” the dialogue centers on the best two people. In the end, two is all you need. A most entertaining hour and 48 minutes, if you are smart enough to look the other way during a few weaknesses of plot. And what are a few weaknesses, between friends?
Release: March 28, 2008
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