FRILLY NICKERS

All-women reboot gives heist tale a lift, despite what stale & male critics say

I SHOULD begin with a disclaimer…some of the stars of this all-woman crime caper say I’m not qualified to review it.

Mindy Kaling attributed its respectable but unspectacular 68% Rotten Tomatoes rating to the high proportion of “white male critics” who, like me, contribute to the online review aggregator’s score.

Meanwhile, Cate Blanchett has blamed “male reviewers, who can view it through a prism of misunderstanding”.

Sandra Bullock added: “It would be nice if reviewers reflected who the film is for.”

Sadly, as none of this week’s releases are aimed at jaded, middleaged, white, northern men (damn you Hollywood!), I shall try to put my prejudices aside and do my best with this gender-flipped spin-off from the Ocean’s series.

The good news is I rather enjoyed it. It wasn’t as clever as George Clooney’s Ocean’s Eleven (obviously), but I thought the all-star cast and writer-director Gary Ross did enough to freshen up a stale franchise.

Until I read the comments I didn’t even notice it was aimed at a specific gender or race. The opening act seemed to set it up nicely as a breezy comedy caper for the broadest of audiences.

Bullock plays Debbie Ocean – the younger sister of Clooney’s possibly dead Danny – who has been behind bars for precisely five years, eight months and 12 days.

Debbie tells the parole board she is a reformed character who now wants to lead the “simple life”. But as soon as she is out of the door she is hustling free hotel rooms and pricey cosmetics.

But, it turns out, this is just her giving her criminal brain a quick workout. Her eye is on a much bigger prize – a $150million Cartier necklace.

She aims to steal it, and the first part of her plan is to get it around the neck of preening actress Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway) as she hosts the glitzy Met gala. To do so, she recruits skint fashion designer Rose (Helena Bonham Carter) and other members of her crew for an enjoyably constructed heist.

The getting the team together bit introduces us to Debbie’s former partner Lou (Blanchett), jeweller Amita (Kaling), hacker Nine Ball (Rihanna), fence Tammy (Sarah Paulson), designer Rose and pick-pocket Constance (rapper Awkwafina).

The heist involves lots of quirky details, like a spiked bowl of soup and a switcheroo in a loo cubicle.

It’s fun but I don’t think the mixed reviews are down to gender bias. Great crime capers keep the preposterous twists stacking up. Here the robbery feels a bit one-paced.

Ross also plays it too safe with his characters. Hathaway and Bonham Carter give great performances with meaty parts, but the rest of the crew feel a little underwritten.

He also devotes a lot of time to the aftermath, where an English insurance inspector is tasked with retrieving the necklace.

This could have been a perfect role for a veteran Brit. But instead of Bill Nighy or Jim Broadbent, Ross goes for US TV flavour of the month James Corden.

Perhaps – this is just my “prism of misunderstanding” talking – women will love the way the cuddly, charmer fires up the final act.

If I believed that, I really would be a sexist pig.