To Catch A Thief

Ocean’s Twelve, starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, et al

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Perhaps no other director working in Hollywood today with artistic ambitions is more adept at also producing quality mainstream movies than Steven Soderbergh. In films like Erin Brockovich and Out of Sight, Soderbergh brings his trademark visual and narrative style to films aimed at a wider audience, making for satisfying yet not too challenging entertainment. It’s a feat that eludes Wes Anderson in his latest film, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, who appears unable to rein in his artistic impulses in the service of a more conventional narrative film. Presumably working on these major studio films affords Soderbergh the opportunity to also work on riskier and more artistically ambitious films like Traffic and The Limey.

While I don’t count Ocean’s Eleven among those mainstream successes—the movie seemed more like an excuse to get a lot of big stars together in a movie than a sincere attempt to make a quality film—its sequel, Ocean’s Twelve, does manage to present a more conventional entertainment with a welcome degree of originality and verve, due not only to Soderbergh’s directorial talents but also to a well-written script with several nice plot twists. Ocean’s Twelve reunites the cast of the earlier film, a group of thieves assembled by Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and co-led by Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt). In this go-round, the mark they ripped off earlier, Terry Ryan (Andy Garcia), has tracked them all down and demands they pay him back what they stole from him with interest, and so the group must now embark on a new series of heists to raise this money.

While the plot may seem a bit thin, it’s actually not, given the details of how Terry is able to track down each member of the group and what ensues. These details involve the appearance of a rival to Ocean’s larcenous activities, the mysterious Night Fox, played here with the perfect combination of arrogance and charm by French actor Vincent Cassel. As the story of each caper and double-cross unfolds, Soderbergh employs some of his usual techniques of allowing dialog to run on into the next scene, often with serendipitous results, as well as shooting group scenes with a single handheld camera to heighten the feeling of intimacy.

Unlike in the previous film, the secondary characters in Ocean’s Twelve are sharply-delineated, and the film’s good lines, of which there are many, are divided more evenly among the large cast. Particular standouts are Matt Damon as the insecure logistics expert who desperately wants to play a more active role in the group's operations, and Elliot Gould as the veteran numbers guy who comes up with some priceless moments of comic exasperation.

The first two-thirds of Ocean’s Twelve is about as good as mainstream film gets, with some inspired comedy, intricate caper scenes, and a confident, well-paced script that doles out regular helpings of unexpected surprises. It all seems like it’s going to inevitably lead to an extremely satisfying conclusion, but unfortunately, Soderbergh and writer George Nolti prove unable to resist throwing in one or two unnecessary twists at the end, including one involving a well-known actor playing himself. These superfluous flourishes slow down the momentum of the movie and are sometimes downright confusing. They’re akin to a basketball team making one pass too many when one player already has a great shot at the basket. Still, the film is extremely enjoyable and a welcome improvement on Ocean’s Eleven, with Soderbergh cementing his reputation as one of the most versatile and original filmmakers working today.

Stars: ***