Old-school Hollywood noir in Soderbergh’s Out of Sight
Over the last few years, each subsequent summer at the movies has ably demonstrated the difficulty of producing pop entertainment that’s any good. Sure, filmmakers can splatter a hundred million dollars of special effects and scripted-by-committee one-liners up there with tired regularity but to really entertain an audience without sacrificing intelligence and aesthetics? Harder than you’d think. Proving that the chasm between art house and multiplex is not as vast as often suggested, some of the best pop cinema of the last couple decades was made by Steven Soderbergh, a director lauded mostly for his indie output. We’ve all seen Ocean’s Eleven — one of the breeziest, most stylish, unabashedly entertaining bits of filmmaking to ever strut across the silver screen. Slightly less ubiquitous is 1998’s Out of Sight, a slick, sly, coolly laidback blend of romantic comedy and neonoir that skimps on neither element and provides that rarest of treats — a mainstream entertainment that appeals more to adults than teenagers.
The film is based on Elmore Leonard’s novel of the same name, possibly the best of his late period work and, in true Leonard fashion, a marvel of plotting and distinctive characterisation. Many have tried to adapt his work and failed miserably. Even the best of these adaptations — Barry Sonnenfeld’s hilarious Get Shorty, for example — fall short when it comes to conjuring the unique voices of Leonard’s characters, coming off cartoonish instead. But Soderbergh facilitates a perfect marriage of actors to roles, throws them Scott Frank’s faithful but playful screenplay and steps back to get out of their way. And what a cast it is — George Clooney, one of the last living movie stars to evoke Hollywood’s Golden Age, supported by a who’s who of character actors most of whom made their bones during that glorious indie renaissance of the 1990s. Clooney plays Jack Foley, a prolific but luckless bank robber whose otherwise successful prison break early in the film is complicated by
This is old-fashioned Hollywood movie magic of the highest calibre, updated by a contemporary master at the top of his game who happened to know a good thing when he saw it.
the interference of Marshal Karen Sisco ( Jennifer Lopez, the best thing she’s ever done). Sparks flare up between cop and robber in that initial encounter, their paths continuing to cross in subsequent weeks as he pursues a big score in Detroit and she continues to track him despite being conflicted about whether said pursuit is motivated more by law enforcement duties or romantic intentions.
The crime thriller aspects are beautifully executed — there is much pleasure in watching the finely tuned jigsaw puzzle of a plot come together. It’s exciting where it needs to be but stops just short of indulging in the sort of frenetic, violent action that would throw off the tone of what is essentially a light-hearted ensemble piece that runs on words not bullets. This is an actors’ movie through and through. The villain — a crazy boxer/gangster played to perfection by the wonderful Don Cheadle — is menacing without being too much of a downer. Nearly all the characters are criminals or, at least, morally suspect but they go about their nefarious business with enough relatability and charm to make us love them, floating through the film on a wave of witty verbiage. Particularly memorable are adorable, goofy Steve Zahn as a stoner con; Catherine Keener as Foley’s ex-wife, a magician’s assistant and gold-digger; Albert Brooks as a shady Bernie Madoff financier type; the late great Dennis Farina as Sisco’s grizzled cop father, visibly proud of his accomplished daughter. Ving Rhames casts a warm glow over the proceedings as Foley’s protective, loyal and morally conflicted right hand man. This ensemble is a cinephile’s dream and Soderbergh affords everyone the space to shine.
That said, this is Clooney and Lopez’s movie. Most movies nowadays attempt titillation along the lines of meaningless sensory stimulation. Very few are genuinely sexy in a way that isn’t cheap or misogynist. Out of Sight is one of those gems, a movie whose sex appeal is pitched at a completely adult level and (significantly) develops on an even playing field. Sisco and Foley are two strong, independent (to a fault) grown-ups who happen to fall for each other with all the intensity of a teen romance but little of the attendant immaturity. The pair spends a comparatively small amount of screen time together and even less as an actual couple. The film’s deliberate rhythms are practically foreplay. But that time — and the crackling, potent chemistry that pervades it — is reminiscent of the greatest onscreen romances, the next coming of Bogart and Bacall or Tracy and Hepburn; larger-than-life like those pairings but possessing a grounded quality they lacked. It’s the first film to make Clooney look like a movie star instead of a TV actor reaching beyond his pay grade, with Lopez matching him move for move, word for word, projecting a forcefulness of presence that she’s never quite replicated. This is oldfashioned Hollywood movie magic of the highest calibre, updated by a contemporary master at the top of his game who happened to know a good thing when he saw it. And we’re the ones who benefit. Well, us, and the careers of George Clooney and nd Jennifer e Lopez.