Out of Sight

National Catholic Reporter, July 17, 1998 by Joseph Cunneen

If it's as hot outside as it was when I saw it, you'll be grateful for an air-conditioned screening Out of Sight (Universal Pictures), adapted by Scott Frank from Elmore Leonard's novel. Director Steven Soderbergh makes a successful switch to commercial filmmaking, aided by a strong cast that includes several unbilled stars identified only in the final credits.

Leonard has reworked his popular mixture of coloful minor criminals, enjoyably tough heroines and smart, fast dialogue, and Soderbergh serves it up with style. The movie captures the book's moody romanticism and reminds us that, though Leonard remains as fond as ever of thieves and con artists, he makes a fundamental distinction between those willing to break the law and cold-blooded killers who revel in brutality.

"Out of Sight," for example, starts fast with a suave, unarmed Jack Foley (George Clooney) robbing a bank by talking to the cashier in the gentlest tones possible. The only trouble is that as he is about to drive away peacefully, his car won't start. The next thing he knows he's in a Florida jail planning how to get out. Jack makes use of an escape scheme already in the works, and arranges for his long-time confederate Buddy (Ving Rhames) to be parked just outside the prison.

In an ingenious variation on "meeting cute," the plot arranged for Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez), an improbably attractive and molly efficient federal marshal, to be on hand to observe the breakout and prepare to shoot. All Buddy can do is push her into his car trunk -- which already holds Jack. And what do these two talk about in those cramped quarters? They get first impressions through standard male-female badinage but mostly discuss what they really take seriously: movies. Karen thinks Faye Dunaway fell for Robert Redford too quickly in "Three Days of the Condor"; he disagrees -- clearly an Elmore Leonard prelude to romance.

The chemistry between Clooney and Lopez is credible. What makes it especially entertaining is that for the rest of the movie the actors convince us they are deeply attracted but remain aware that what they're getting into is dangerous to their own self-interest. Karen, after all, has serious ambitions for professional advancement as a crime-fighter. Jack should be concentrating all his intelligence on the dangerous score he and Buddy are planning in Detroit, which involves temporary collaboration with violent criminals such as Snoopy (Don Cheadle).

Although Jack and Karen are in Detroit for opposing professional reasons, they're obviously hoping to find each other there. Probably the most successful scene in the movie is one in a hotel bar where Karen shows her working-class self-confidence in getting rid of three predatory sharpies who want to buy her a drink. When Jack finds her table and sits down opposite her, however, there is a seamless shift to flirtatious exchange in which both she and Jack anticipate future physical pleasure.

Although we're meant to believe these two genuinely care for each other, "Out of Sight" continues on to its inevitable climax, an attempted robbery of uncut diamonds from the Detroit home of Richard Ripley (Albert Brooks), once a fellow jailbird of both Jack and Snoopy. We're more worried about Jack and Buddy getting double-crossed by Snoopy & Co. than about the fate of Ripley and his paramour, however. Karen is following the action from across the street. There are so many false leads it's hard to keep track of everything. Wilt Jack finally have to use a gun? Is the movie more interested in romance than thrills and lowlife comedy? Soderbergh wisely avoids simple genre identifications and keeps a few questions open even at the end with one more surprise cameo appearance from Samuel Jackson.

You may feel a bit sheepish about liking a movie that offers a pistol-packing mama as a contemporary female role model but it's hard to resist. Elliot Davis' cinematography makes the proceedings look moodily sophisticated, and the fast pacing manages to preserve Leonard's witty dialogue. How can you not like a movie in which Jack's pal, Buddy, is constantly calling his sister, who is a nun, to confess his latest peccadillo? Especially when she forgives her brother but always turns him in.