Have you read Noel Vera's review of
Ocean's Twelve? It's a shocker.
One more by Noel Vera
Frank Sinatra did "Ocean's Eleven" in 1960 as an excuse to have a lark, roping in Lewis Milestone (a filmmaker who started in the silent era, did the powerful 1930 anti-war film "All Quiet on the Western Front," and by this time was an antediluvian anachronism) to direct traffic; Steven Soderbergh is luckier than Milestone, in that it was he who decided he was going to have fun, along with everyone else he happened to cast, in remaking the picture. This "Ocean's Eleven" bears all the marks of a relaxed, no-fuss movie, with Soderbergh recycling actors and images and jokes where necessary (George Clooney plays Sinatra's Danny Ocean as a reworking of his convict-out-of-prison characters in "Out of Sight" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"; the ending where Danny and his crew watch a fountain show is inspired by a similar sequence in "The Right Stuff"). Thanks to Soderbergh's not inconsiderable filmmaking skills, it turned out to be a fairly good caper flick, better than the material deserved, which was the whole point, I suppose--to prove that he can slum it (or whore it) with the best of them, and better than most. Don't mean he has made a slapdash picture, no--I'm sure he applied every bit of passion and skill into the project as he does his more serious ones--but it has the appearance of being effortlessly done, which is, of course, the hardest effect of all to produce.
In which case, "Ocean Twelve" would be--what, a sequel to the remake of a lark? Whatever it is, Soderbergh, having proven the commercial viability of the exercise, must have felt freer to do what he wished, and bent upon doing it with a will. The sequel is visually a touch more baroque than the original, with bright colors, handheld shots, freeze-frames, jumps forward and backward in time, and editing hiccups inherited from Jean-Luc Godard. Plotwise it's also more complex, beginning as a "long arm of the past catches up" type movie, as Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), villain of the previous flick, appears beside each of the main characters wielding threats and a cane, demanding his money back plus interest (in Danny's case he makes representation to Tess Ocean (Julia Roberts), Danny's wife and Terry's ex-squeeze); it becomes a "cop pursues thieves across Europe" sort of picture, as a police officer (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and former girlfriend of Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt), one of the eleven, puts herself on their trail with illegally signed orders; it finally morphs into a "greatest criminal in the world" challenge as Night
Fox, a rival burglar whose real name is Francois Toulour (Vincent Cassel) challenges Ocean to steal the same object he had stolen years before: the Faberge Coronation Egg (one of my favorites from the collection, complete with a beautifully made little golden carriage inside). Soderbergh tops the overstuffed dish with a sprinkling of improvised banter, in-jokes, homages to other movies, plus a flourish of cameos (Robbie Coltrane, Jeroen Krabbe, and Albert Finney (who worked with both Roberts and Soderbergh in "Erin Brokovich") being my favorites) peeking out from the margins.
The key to making the whole thing work is the same as that of a successful soufflé: experience, balls, timing. It's to Soderbergh's credit that he has enough of all three to push the outside of the envelope a tad bit, include one or two conceits that actually seem daring, if not actually imaginative (the best demonstrates a self-reflexive humor worthy of Pirandello, or at least Chuck Jones, or at the very least maybe Joe Dante); if the movie fails, it's in the moments when it takes itself seriously. I thought the character of Tess was criminally wasted in "Eleven" because she represented the most dramatic thread in that picture, the sexual rivalry between Danny and Terry. That was supposed to provide "heart," to show that Danny had something truly at stake when he chose Terry's casinos to rob; what the subplot actually did was drag the movie down just when it was supposed to gather momentum. In "Twelve," Robert's Tess actually gets to do something, and it's the single best joke in the movie--so good it tends to put the rest in shadow (if the movie were all on this level of inventiveness, it might actually amount to
something). Here it's Catherine Zeta-Jones who gets the big drama scene, and for about a few minutes, the picture falls flat (loved the cameo, it's Zeta-Jones who I thought was inadequate)--recovers somewhat after, but not on the same spirited level.
The cast is as competent as ever; Clooney may not be anywhere near as good a singer as Sinatra, but he's at least as smooth an actor, funnier and more willing to take risks; Brad Pitt is less offensive and more credible than usual (he's always better in comic roles); Roberts is a blast here where, as I noted, in "Eleven" she was dead weight; Don Cheadle isn't any more convincing doing his alleged cockney a second time around (at least he's toned down the rhyming slang), but is still a welcome presence. My favorites, of course, are the old timers--Elliot Gould as the irascible Reuben Tishkoff, Carl Reiner as the mournful Saul Bloom. Vincent Cassel doesn't do much as Francois (he made a much bigger impression in Gaspar Noe's "Irreversible"), but does do a smashing dance number.
As for Soderbergh--he's one of America's most intelligent and versatile filmmakers, of course, though I've always suspected that when it comes to filmmaking (or to art in general) intelligence and versatility aren't all that crucial. His best works aren't necessarily his most serious ("Traffic" and "Solaris" come to mind), and when he tries for big moments, he's not as good as a less intelligent, less tasteful, more imaginative filmmaker might be. He's best when he's channeling a pretty good writer who does convincing characters (his adaptation of Elmore Leonard's "Out of Time"), or when he's lucked upon a good screenplay and an actor ripe for a great performance (Lem Dobbs and Terence Stamp, respectively, in "The Limey"). He's an interesting filmmaker--or, at least, interesting enough; the aforementioned films and the "Ocean" movies may represent the best of his range.
First published in Businessworld, 1/7/05
