Flawless's Notes
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Probably THE BEST heist movies without all the cutting edge gadgets and eye-candy CGIs. Brilliant execution, this movie proves again that a heist movie can be pulled off only with a good story and plot and good acting as well as direction along with camera-work. When I started to watch this movie, the first thought that came to my mind was, here we go again another heist movie with a diabolical plan or to take revenge on the company that terminated you. But don't know why, still hanged on and thank god, I did. Otherwise I would have never known how old wine can be presented in new bottle while making it more better. Hey!!! what are you still doing reading this boring comment, shuuu!!, go!!! and watch the movie.
Everything works in this movie : The direction, the acting, the shooting, the story and the script - one commentators claimed that it was limited and one dimensional but it is quite on the contrary : the script was written very elegantly with quite a lot of subtelties and these would probably be missed by those who are used the usual wham bahm great Hollywood films.
The only (small) flaw in the film was its so called "feministic" flavour, it was completely unnecessary - any, if all, "politically correct messages", would have been understood from the story itself - there was no need to shove it in the audience face.
All in all this movie is intelligent, interesting and exciting. I highly recommend it.
The only (small) flaw in the film was its so called "feministic" flavour, it was completely unnecessary - any, if all, "politically correct messages", would have been understood from the story itself - there was no need to shove it in the audience face.
All in all this movie is intelligent, interesting and exciting. I highly recommend it.
I just watch this movie last night and let me say that I thought the movie was terrific. Since the movie hasn't even premiered in the US or Europe, I was hesitated because there were no reviews at all out there. But I'm glad to say that I enjoyed every minute of it.
The story is set in the 1960s, so don't expect the heist to be high-tech or complicated like the Ocean's series, Entrapment or The Italian Job. The real gem in the movie is the way it explains itself, all in good timing - it's nice to see a movie that still makes its viewers guessing.
Demi Moore and Michael Caine did a good job, and so is the supporting characters, played by Lambert Wilson and Joss Ackland. I am surprised however that Demi Moore can carried the whole movie, she was practically almost in every scene, and she proved that given the right material, she can make the viewers empathize with her. I certainly felt cheated, nervous and uneasy during the last half of the film, just like her character did.
If you appreciate a smart, subtle and entertaining movie, this is the movie for you. I highly recommend it!
The story is set in the 1960s, so don't expect the heist to be high-tech or complicated like the Ocean's series, Entrapment or The Italian Job. The real gem in the movie is the way it explains itself, all in good timing - it's nice to see a movie that still makes its viewers guessing.
Demi Moore and Michael Caine did a good job, and so is the supporting characters, played by Lambert Wilson and Joss Ackland. I am surprised however that Demi Moore can carried the whole movie, she was practically almost in every scene, and she proved that given the right material, she can make the viewers empathize with her. I certainly felt cheated, nervous and uneasy during the last half of the film, just like her character did.
If you appreciate a smart, subtle and entertaining movie, this is the movie for you. I highly recommend it!
It may not live up to its title, but as a polished and lustrous exercise in '60s nostalgia, "Flawless" holds its value. A heist movie that pits Michael Caine, ironically reprising his own work in that genre, opposite Demi Moore -- here an ambitious businesswoman, providing pic's only concession to 21st-century tastes -- pic is as neatly tailored, clean-cut, and visually appealing as a Savile Row suit. But auds accustomed to more knowing fare are likely to find its twists and turns outdated while yearning for a little of the rebellious fun that made the genre gleam in the first place.
Commercial prospects seem solid if not spectacular in Europe, with Stateside activity (Magnolia Pictures release goes out Nov. 30 in the U.S.) for this ultra-Brit product depending on whether the admittedly striking Caine-Moore combo raises the right expectations.
Opening credits sequence shows the journey of a diamond from mud to ring, suggesting the precision engineering of the plot to come, but also the moral murkiness involved in the ring's production.
The aging Laura Quinn (Moore, curiously made-up) is being interviewed about her role as a groundbreaking businesswoman. Pic then flashes back to 1960 London, when the power-suited, ambitious and brilliant Quinn, the only senior female exec at the London Diamonds Corp., becomes frustrated after being passed over for promotion by her male colleagues.
There has been a scandal at a South African mine and a hundred miners have died, threatening the company's relationship with the all-important Russians. Quinn hands the right political solution to company boss Sir Milton Ashtoncroft (Joss Ackland), but is then informed by the company's soon-to-retire janitor, Hobbs (Caine) -- who appears to know all the company business -- that she is about to be fired anyway.
Incredibly to Quinn, Hobbs is planning a heist: Like a Cockney Iago, he plays persistently on her insecurities, and soon she's dreaming about walking out of the building with diamonds stuck to the insides of her fingernails. Quinn obtains the code to the safe, while Hobbs manages to dupe the newly installed security cameras. ("What will they think of next?" he muses, in one of the script's winks to our less innocent times.)
The lengthy, nerve-wracking central heist sequence is beautifully shot, shuttling between Hobbs' attempts to enter the vault, security footage, a hungry guard and Moore's nervous attempts to make a red-herring phone call.
Plot then focuses on the increasingly edgy relationship between Hobbs and Quinn as insurance investigator Finch (Lambert Wilson) opens an inquiry and a mild flirtation with the heroine. But pic never sparkles as brightly as before.
One of the things that make Caine's '60s heist movies memorable is their sense of fun, something conspicuously lacking here -- it's as though the laughter were accidentally left out of the recipe while the heist ingredients were being carefully measured out. Nor is there much room for romance -- though some is smuggled in, rather movingly, courtesy of Hobbs.
Likewise, the modern imperatives of political correctness don't work in pic's favor. The exploitation of the miners serves only as a potential wrench in the gears of the plot, while the conventional ending barely reps the triumph of a woman over the system promised at the outset.Moore is convincing enough as Quinn, who's only superficially tough, and best when she lowers her guard and allows her nervousness to show through. (Her wobbly Brit accent is explained by the fact that she's an American who studied at Oxford.)
Caine, shuffling around in blue overalls, uttering softly spoken eternal truths, plays himself to perfection, but the duo's relationship, despite the actors' hard work, never quite sheds its artificiality or earns our sympathy. Ackland, as the spluttering, rubicund Sir Milton, is enjoyably Falstaffian.
Period detail is lovingly rendered (it's a nice touch to have people smoking in the cinema), while the technology is wonderfully '60s. Dialogue is occasionally spot-on; one potential suitor to Quinn explains that, since he's married, any affair would have to be "unadventurous." (This, after all, is before the Swingin' '60s were really under way.)
Away from Stephen Warbeck's effective orchestral score, smoky jazz -- such as Dave Brubeck's epoch-defining "Take Five" -- gorgeously reminds us where we are.
Commercial prospects seem solid if not spectacular in Europe, with Stateside activity (Magnolia Pictures release goes out Nov. 30 in the U.S.) for this ultra-Brit product depending on whether the admittedly striking Caine-Moore combo raises the right expectations.
Opening credits sequence shows the journey of a diamond from mud to ring, suggesting the precision engineering of the plot to come, but also the moral murkiness involved in the ring's production.
The aging Laura Quinn (Moore, curiously made-up) is being interviewed about her role as a groundbreaking businesswoman. Pic then flashes back to 1960 London, when the power-suited, ambitious and brilliant Quinn, the only senior female exec at the London Diamonds Corp., becomes frustrated after being passed over for promotion by her male colleagues.
There has been a scandal at a South African mine and a hundred miners have died, threatening the company's relationship with the all-important Russians. Quinn hands the right political solution to company boss Sir Milton Ashtoncroft (Joss Ackland), but is then informed by the company's soon-to-retire janitor, Hobbs (Caine) -- who appears to know all the company business -- that she is about to be fired anyway.
Incredibly to Quinn, Hobbs is planning a heist: Like a Cockney Iago, he plays persistently on her insecurities, and soon she's dreaming about walking out of the building with diamonds stuck to the insides of her fingernails. Quinn obtains the code to the safe, while Hobbs manages to dupe the newly installed security cameras. ("What will they think of next?" he muses, in one of the script's winks to our less innocent times.)
The lengthy, nerve-wracking central heist sequence is beautifully shot, shuttling between Hobbs' attempts to enter the vault, security footage, a hungry guard and Moore's nervous attempts to make a red-herring phone call.
Plot then focuses on the increasingly edgy relationship between Hobbs and Quinn as insurance investigator Finch (Lambert Wilson) opens an inquiry and a mild flirtation with the heroine. But pic never sparkles as brightly as before.
One of the things that make Caine's '60s heist movies memorable is their sense of fun, something conspicuously lacking here -- it's as though the laughter were accidentally left out of the recipe while the heist ingredients were being carefully measured out. Nor is there much room for romance -- though some is smuggled in, rather movingly, courtesy of Hobbs.
Likewise, the modern imperatives of political correctness don't work in pic's favor. The exploitation of the miners serves only as a potential wrench in the gears of the plot, while the conventional ending barely reps the triumph of a woman over the system promised at the outset.Moore is convincing enough as Quinn, who's only superficially tough, and best when she lowers her guard and allows her nervousness to show through. (Her wobbly Brit accent is explained by the fact that she's an American who studied at Oxford.)
Caine, shuffling around in blue overalls, uttering softly spoken eternal truths, plays himself to perfection, but the duo's relationship, despite the actors' hard work, never quite sheds its artificiality or earns our sympathy. Ackland, as the spluttering, rubicund Sir Milton, is enjoyably Falstaffian.
Period detail is lovingly rendered (it's a nice touch to have people smoking in the cinema), while the technology is wonderfully '60s. Dialogue is occasionally spot-on; one potential suitor to Quinn explains that, since he's married, any affair would have to be "unadventurous." (This, after all, is before the Swingin' '60s were really under way.)
Away from Stephen Warbeck's effective orchestral score, smoky jazz -- such as Dave Brubeck's epoch-defining "Take Five" -- gorgeously reminds us where we are.
This is a well done film with Michael Caine and the not so young Demi Moore. Regardless of their ages, the depth of the characters puts together a timid plot to make an enjoyable film, with a feel good film/ story. Okay for a night to replace boredom with small laughing outbursts on the quirkiness of subtle underlying jokes. It is a slow movie to begin, and is so through out the rest of it, but it does it in such a way to continue the growing curiosity and find out the sum of the show from the small twists and plays of the storyline. It is mostly the lovable character (Caine) that keeps the viewer involved so deeply in the story, also his lost but not forgotten past. It leads to a cliché ending but still very acceptable in my view. And the actor whom plays Mr.Finch also plays the Merovingian from The Matrix. A small plus to see his acting career develop and hopefully become more mainstream.