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Odd Couple: Michael Caine and Demi Moore co-star in a 50s era diamond heist caper
Ice Ice Baby:
Flawless
3-28-08 "Knight Thoughts" web exclusive review
By Richard Knight, Jr.
Flawless
3-28-08 "Knight Thoughts" web exclusive review
By Richard Knight, Jr.
Demi Moore has the starring role in Flawless, her first in over ten years. She was box office queen for about five years in the
1990s, following on the heels of the phenomenal success of Ghost and her screen persona and stardom were wrapped up in her
unabashed sexuality and iron willed determination (both, apparently, on and off the screen). Softness, subtlety and vulnerability
were not her strong suits (ironic, because it's the tear rolling down her cheek in Ghost that put her over the top and remains her one
true iconic movie moment) and she wasn't much of an actress or comedian. In other words, she was very much a latter day Joan
Crawford and it's not hard to imagine Moore's roles being played by Crawford (and vice versa). As her years at the top of the
Hollywood heap progressed the toughness became mixed with a certain inevitability, a resignation of her fate. The public had
decreed that Moore was a ball breaker which her role in Full Disclosure saw in full bloom.
But unlike Crawford, when Moore's films started to fail (Stripper, G.I. Jane and the overblown, campy Scarlet Letter) she didn't continue
to churn out whatever she could get her hands on. Instead, she left Hollywood, raised her kids, and has only returned in recent
years to supporting parts. She is perhaps more famous now as the wife of Ashton Kutcher than as the woman who appeared naked
and pregnant on the cover of Vanity Fair, thus igniting a tabloid frenzy. This new Moore has a much less strident public persona and
has had a well reviewed acting "triumph" in Bobby. She was particularly convincing in the role as a tough, drunken movie star and the
part allowed her to use lots of her specialty, intense anger, her specialty. Now with this starring role in Flawless, we are finally getting
her in another starring part. But the Moore of ten years ago would certainly have changed it and I never thought I'd write this, but I
think what Flawless needed was some of her signature High Dungeon Melodrama to give it some spark.
Moore plays Laura Quinn, the lone female manager at London's conservative Diamond Corporation in 1960. Wearing the tailored
suits and pageboy haircut of Jackie Kennedy, Laura cuts a striking figure among her all male co-workers. Laura is all business,
brainy and canny, used to deflecting the endless sexual innuendos from the flock of men around her, determinedly single, and the
first in and the last out at the office. Apart from her job, which seems to entail toting up a lot of figures on an ever-present ledger,
it's not clear what else there is to the character. Without a home life, love life, interior life, there's not much There there. The old
Moore would have added a hot affair to spice up the action, insisted that a scene with a screaming confrontation with her hideous
boss be inserted, maybe another that showed Laura scooping up diamonds and laughing triumphantly over her ability to once again
trounce those men that had dared underestimate her!
But none of that happens. Instead, Laura keeps plugging away at those sheets, while writing little "buck up kiddo" notes to herself
each time she's passed over for a promotion. But lucky for Laura (and us), the frustration is keenly noted by Mr. Hobbs (Michael
Caine) the night janitor. Soon, he has gotten Laura involved in a simple plot to steal enough ice from the vault so he can retire in
comfort and Laura enough to do...um something else, I guess (it's never really made clear what she wants to do with her share of
the diamonds since she doesn't seem to have any dreams or plans or schemes of her own). For audiences raised on intricate heist
thrillers, Mr. Hobbs' plan will not seem particularly engaging but when the theft takes place there is a modicum of suspense and
there is something sort of enticing about the low grade security of the period to keep you engaged. Then, after the robbery, a not
unexpected plot twist comes into play which helps move the movie along and keeps one sorta interested in the outcome.
The picture is mildly entertaining, aided strongly by the retro period and Caine's authoritative performance. As for Moore, the script,
unfortunately, doesn't really offer her much - certainly not the intensity that brought her equal parts fame and derision in the first
place. Ironically, though the years away have lessened the animosity one sometimes subconsciously brought to the theatre when
one of Moore's pictures was playing, she's not what you would call a nuanced actress. Like Crawford and other stars whose acting is
personality driven (Tom Cruise and Ali McGraw are two others), Moore needs roles that have dialogue featuring lots of EXCLAMATION!
POINTS! She needs that intensity and she doesn't have that here and though likeable enough, she's never going to really resonate
on the screen without those all those !!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's an acting flaw that is clearly pointed out in Flawless.
1990s, following on the heels of the phenomenal success of Ghost and her screen persona and stardom were wrapped up in her
unabashed sexuality and iron willed determination (both, apparently, on and off the screen). Softness, subtlety and vulnerability
were not her strong suits (ironic, because it's the tear rolling down her cheek in Ghost that put her over the top and remains her one
true iconic movie moment) and she wasn't much of an actress or comedian. In other words, she was very much a latter day Joan
Crawford and it's not hard to imagine Moore's roles being played by Crawford (and vice versa). As her years at the top of the
Hollywood heap progressed the toughness became mixed with a certain inevitability, a resignation of her fate. The public had
decreed that Moore was a ball breaker which her role in Full Disclosure saw in full bloom.
But unlike Crawford, when Moore's films started to fail (Stripper, G.I. Jane and the overblown, campy Scarlet Letter) she didn't continue
to churn out whatever she could get her hands on. Instead, she left Hollywood, raised her kids, and has only returned in recent
years to supporting parts. She is perhaps more famous now as the wife of Ashton Kutcher than as the woman who appeared naked
and pregnant on the cover of Vanity Fair, thus igniting a tabloid frenzy. This new Moore has a much less strident public persona and
has had a well reviewed acting "triumph" in Bobby. She was particularly convincing in the role as a tough, drunken movie star and the
part allowed her to use lots of her specialty, intense anger, her specialty. Now with this starring role in Flawless, we are finally getting
her in another starring part. But the Moore of ten years ago would certainly have changed it and I never thought I'd write this, but I
think what Flawless needed was some of her signature High Dungeon Melodrama to give it some spark.
Moore plays Laura Quinn, the lone female manager at London's conservative Diamond Corporation in 1960. Wearing the tailored
suits and pageboy haircut of Jackie Kennedy, Laura cuts a striking figure among her all male co-workers. Laura is all business,
brainy and canny, used to deflecting the endless sexual innuendos from the flock of men around her, determinedly single, and the
first in and the last out at the office. Apart from her job, which seems to entail toting up a lot of figures on an ever-present ledger,
it's not clear what else there is to the character. Without a home life, love life, interior life, there's not much There there. The old
Moore would have added a hot affair to spice up the action, insisted that a scene with a screaming confrontation with her hideous
boss be inserted, maybe another that showed Laura scooping up diamonds and laughing triumphantly over her ability to once again
trounce those men that had dared underestimate her!
But none of that happens. Instead, Laura keeps plugging away at those sheets, while writing little "buck up kiddo" notes to herself
each time she's passed over for a promotion. But lucky for Laura (and us), the frustration is keenly noted by Mr. Hobbs (Michael
Caine) the night janitor. Soon, he has gotten Laura involved in a simple plot to steal enough ice from the vault so he can retire in
comfort and Laura enough to do...um something else, I guess (it's never really made clear what she wants to do with her share of
the diamonds since she doesn't seem to have any dreams or plans or schemes of her own). For audiences raised on intricate heist
thrillers, Mr. Hobbs' plan will not seem particularly engaging but when the theft takes place there is a modicum of suspense and
there is something sort of enticing about the low grade security of the period to keep you engaged. Then, after the robbery, a not
unexpected plot twist comes into play which helps move the movie along and keeps one sorta interested in the outcome.
The picture is mildly entertaining, aided strongly by the retro period and Caine's authoritative performance. As for Moore, the script,
unfortunately, doesn't really offer her much - certainly not the intensity that brought her equal parts fame and derision in the first
place. Ironically, though the years away have lessened the animosity one sometimes subconsciously brought to the theatre when
one of Moore's pictures was playing, she's not what you would call a nuanced actress. Like Crawford and other stars whose acting is
personality driven (Tom Cruise and Ali McGraw are two others), Moore needs roles that have dialogue featuring lots of EXCLAMATION!
POINTS! She needs that intensity and she doesn't have that here and though likeable enough, she's never going to really resonate
on the screen without those all those !!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's an acting flaw that is clearly pointed out in Flawless.
