Move over Frank (Sinatra) and the rest of the ’’Rat Pack’’, here’s George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Co. vying to steal the honours in an intelligently narrated heist story. Coming from Steven Soderberg who had earlier given us ’’Erin Brockovich’’ and ’’Traffic’’ among others, this one truly lives up to all the hype and hoopla created by the media prior to its release. I was undecided on watching this movie because I had earlier watched his Erin Brockovich...found it so boring that I left the theatre half way through!
Coming to this movie, it has a razor thin storyline and an even thinner sketch of the main characters. What it does have, is a star-studded cast which give good performances inspite of the shackles imposed on them by a constraining script. Cut then to the opening shot of an empty seat in a prison in New Jersey where Daniel Ocean (George Clooney) is being questioned of his motives for having stolen something valuable that landed him there in the first place. Apparently, his wife (Julia Roberts) has left him in favour of Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), the owner of some of the largest casinos in Las Vegas.
As they say, once a thief, always a thief...and Daniel Ocean, after his release from the prison, assembles a motley crew of conmen with expertise in different fields and hatches a daring plan to steal 150 Million USD from Benedict’s casinos. So far so good...a major portion of the first half is dedicated to showing how Ocean assembles his accomplices and how they go about preparing for their daring crime.
The second half is all a “A thief’s guide to looting a Casino”. Strangely this is one of those rare movies where the thieves get away with their loot and enjoy it happily thereafter. As I said before, there’s nothing substantial here by way of a story but the movie still makes for some good timepass even after discounting the George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts factors.
Coming to the acting honours, Clooney gets a very meaty role of the on-screen proceedings and is really cool in his scenes showing just the right kind of emotion and humour where required. Both Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts are content with a “rat’s bite” (pun intended) in the movie and seem to have been picked mainly to serve as an insurance package for the movie. While Pitt in just about fine belting out his quota of dialogues and flashing his boyish smile whenever required, Julia Roberts has been completely wasted and looks wooden, jaded and utterly befuddled in a role that could very well have gone to any other glamour doll in Hollywood. Andy Garcia, with his handsome Italian looks is the Casino owner and emits the right mix of ruthlessness and suave style. I really wonder why he doesn’t get more chances to showcase his acting prowess (Remember Godfather III?).
Technically, this movie is a viewer’s delight and there are few discernible faults, if any. The camera work and background music score deserve special mention here. While the cinematographer beautifully captures the grandeur and beauty of a Las Vegas night with all its neon and halogen lights apart from capturing the emotions and feelings of the cast with some good close-up shots, the background music perfectly compliments the movie in practically every scene without being loud or jarring.
The director does a great job and his unique style is apparent in the way he handled certain scenes very well. A striking point is that there are no time consuming or emotional dialogues, we have more of single-line and crisp dialogues sprinkled with a generous dose of humour that actually helps in adding to the overall appeal of the movie. Thankfully, there are no steamy scenes here which would only have acted as a deterrent to the pace of the movie. A good movie to watch either with friends or someone very close, as long as they don’t start drooling over Brad Pitt or Julia Roberts.
Oops...for those in Mumbai..don’t worry..there are no rats in the Sterling Theatre ;-)