It is said that absence makes the heart grow fonder, well I had not watched Ocean’s Eleven (2011) in quite some time, and then I fell in love with it all over again. Style and star power, glamour and grifters, it is pure entertainment.
Professional thief Danny Ocean is fresh out of prison and already has plans to pull of the biggest score of his career - a Casino heist. Danny assembles 10 other con-men to pull the perfect heist, but things become complicated when the ruthless Casino boss they are stealing from is also dating Danny’s ex-wife. Can Danny win back the girl and get the money, or will his best laid plans fall apart?
The assemble cast is what immediately impresses, and while there were other actors considered, it is now hard to imagine anyone else in the roles that the cast make their own. George Clooney and Brad Pitt steal the show as Ocean and his right-hand man Rusty Ryan. They share entertaining banter, and have a similar chemistry that Newman and Redford had on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The rest of the eleven do not disappoint, Matt Damon is insecure as the rookie, Elliot Gould is Las Vegas personified as Reuben, I won’t mention them all but suffice it to say the gang really do feel like a gang - and not a bunch of egos competing for screen time. Julia Roberts is thoroughly on-point as Tess, she steals all the emotional moments and delivers them with such credibility that it lifts Ocean’s from light entertainment to something with heart and soul. The one weak link is Don Cheadle as Basher, Cheadle is a fine actor but he is certainly not British. His accent ranks as possibly the worst I’ve ever heard on film, and it seems an odd choice compared with the rest of the film which is slick and meticulously produced.
Steven Soderbergh is possibly the best director whom nobody has heard of. This is probably because his work is so eclectic, from Magic Mike to Contagion, Soderbergh refuses to be pinned down. His work on Ocean’s Eleven is superb, his understated direction of some of Hollywoods biggest stars juxtaposes with the flashy visuals, to create a film that is smooth and slick rather than unwieldy. Soderbergh served as cinematographer as well, creating striking images that demand attention. The denouement as the gang watch the Bellagio fountains to Debussy’s Clare de Lune is one of my all time favourite scenes in any film. Soderbergh also masterfully works around the fact that the first act of the film is essentially all introductions and exposition, he doesn’t simply put all the gang in a room with name badges, he takes the time to give backstory and fill the world of the film where grifters have elaborate code-names and a history of their own.
One of my favourite youtube channels is Tony Zhou’s Every Frame a Painting. Tony analyses the style of different directors in depth, in an entertaining and educational way - here’s hoping he picks Oceans Eleven as his next case study. Soderbergh certainly treats every frame as a painting, the placement of the actors, the field of view, everything is considered and deliberate. Apparently Soderbergh wanted to shoot the whole film in black and white but was denied by Warner Bros, and for once I am thankful for studio interference because the colour scheme in Ocean’s Eleven is sublime - particularly the reunion between Danny and Rusty looks like something out of a dream, there is a timeless quality to the aesthetic, which means that even 13 years on the film feels fresh.
There is always room for improvement, and the sequels Ocean’s Twelve and Thirteen expand and improve on some aspects of Eleven, in particular giving the female characters more to do, and considering the repercussions of the criminal lifestyle. That said, Eleven is an excellent stand alone film in its own right, its status as a remake and trilogy notwithstanding. Ironically for a film about a casino heist, the stakes never seem too high, this is arguably part of the film’s charm - its light and breezy tone, however despite the magnitude of the crime and the apparent ruthlessness of Andy Garcia’s Casino Boss, the gang never seems to be in much peril. Perhaps this is just the result of our expectations of hollywood, the heist does not appear to go according to plan and Roberts gives Danny something to lose, so this is only a minor criticism of an otherwise thrilling film.
Someone asked me whether reviewing films had ruined the experience of watching them, well before I knew anything about films I liked Oceans Eleven, now I love it. Perhaps it is not the deepest film, perhaps some of the performances are over the top, and perhaps some of the accents should have gotten certain actors in Barney Rubble - TROUBLE!! However, Ocean’s Eleven is a superbly well crafted piece of entertainment, absolutely worth the time to watch, and filled with little details that make it worth watching again and again.
WHO: George Clooney, the youngster may just have a promising career ahead of him
WHAT: The Bellagio Fountains scene, perfect.
WHY: Because the house always wins. Play long enough, you never change the stakes. The house takes you. Unless…
WHEN: …when that perfect hand comes along, you bet and you bet big, then you take the house.
(Art from: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/no056-my-oceans-11-minimal-movie-poster-chungkong-art.html)
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