Flawless
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Movie Reviews of Flawless
Movie Review: Three and 1/2 Star Hesit Flick
Summary: 4 Stars
Flawless is an very interesting, beautifully filmed caper. Caine and Moore (really) are both excellent in this film. Period detail and photgraphy are rich and secrets are well kept until the end. There is one fatal flaw here though - it moves at a snail's pace. While I can easily recommend this one, it does feel a lot longer than its actual running time.Movie Review: great movie
Summary: 4 Stars
It's a great!The only problem is no English subtitle on film.Cause I am a customer of oversea. So it is a little bit diffcult for understand what the story of film.Movie Review: Not Enough Sparkle
Summary: 3 Stars
There's nothing really wrong with this film - it just seems to fall sort of flat. There isn't the chemistry there should be between Michael Caine and Demi Moore. And their diamond heist plan is only allowed to move forward by virtue of a couple of highly improbable strokes of good luck - such as having a pair of binoculars fall into Moore's hands at just the right moment.
There is also something a little disturbingly harsh and unconvincing about the lighting and make-up work on this film. The stars look prematurely aged at the start of the movie. Then as the scene arcs to Demi Moore as an old woman, she looks even more unconvincing as a senior. Early movies used to do a notoriously bad job of making young people look old. Perhaps it wasn't the fault of the make-up artists. It might be even more difficult to make a young person look old than it is to make an old person look young. In the last decade or so though, the art of make-up and prosthetic devices seemed to grow equal to the task. But now "Flawless" set the art back again with Moore's obviously adventitious wrinkles.
While this is primarily a caper film, a strong secondary theme is "You've come a long way, baby!" This movie is effective at showing how precarious Demi Moore's position was in the 1960's when she was the only female executive in a diamond brokerage firm. She has to walk a thin line between coming up with a stream of innovative, profit-making ideas for the firm - and conforming to corporate culture and consensus. Whichever side of that line she falls on, she is always in danger of being undermined by her male co-workers who assume priority when it comes to corporate advancement.
However, I'm not sure the movie makes its case for how much better things are nowadays when it shows modern executive women being powerful simply by virtue of having frequently ringing cell phones and having cultivated a bustling, confident stride.
This DVD unfortunately has no full-length Director's commentary, only fragmentary "Making Of" commentaries. I would have liked an accompanying voice-over that explained a number of the confusing plot points and filled in what I thought were some missing links in the plot.
There were also no English subtitles for this film. Again, I missed those, especially in the early part of the film when Caine and Moore speak in such rapid sotto vocce that I had trouble catching everything they said.
All in all, this movie has some merit, but it's sufficient to rent it. There's nothing here to warrant making it a part of your permanent collection.
Movie Review: Flawed, but still a gem
Summary: 3 Stars
A return to the classic heist genre made famous by films like "The Thomas Crown Affair" (the original with Steve McQueen) and "The Sting," "Flawless" is enjoyable if a bit predictable. Set in 60s era England, with an English diamond cartel masquerading as DeBeers, and it's protagonist Laura Quinn played by the well cast Demi Moore, the film captures both the period, and the glass ceiling misery of a woman working in 'a man's world.'
The atmosphere of the film is spot on, with gorgeous bank interiors, rainy London nights, and even Quinn's wood-paneled, smoke filled office. Perhaps it's strongest element, the viewer feels immersed in the secretive and foreign world of the diamond broker from the very opening scene in which an African diamond miner unearths a collection of stones, and as the viewer watches a series of vignettes, the largest of them is cut, polished, and mounted in a ring which is then shown on a newly engaged woman's finger. This provides a grounding for the action to follow, and even a subtle hint at the politics of 'conflict diamonds.'
The acting is engaging and for the most part spot-on with Moore turning in an especially enjoyable performance as she teeters between supreme self confidence and despair. She is both sexy and intelligent, aptly capturing Quinn's bold ambition and masked with a carefully controlled demeanor and appearance. Michal Cane is also delightful as the night janitor who has selected Quinn as his accomplice, taking advantage of her frustration with watching men inferior to her be promoted repeatedly.
The heist itself is not lavish or complex, and fails to capture the imagination until it's true nature is revealed. Unfortunately, it also strains credulity, and when all secrets are revealed, left this reviewer feeling a bit put upon. Another flaw is that the theft and it's subsequent dialogue between between Cane and Moore reveals a cheesy, moralistic and even contrived reason for the theft. This leads into the final conclusion, in which a desperate attempt to re-portray Quinn as a hero, instead turns the film on it's head as the action returns to present day England, and a conversation with a newspaper reporter interviewing Quinn. Quinn then reveals what she has done with the money, in all it's horrid, forced morality.
Aside from the last fifteen minutes or so, the film is excellent if a bit slow, and fans of the caper or heist genre owe it to themselves to watch it. The movie is nowhere near 'flawless,' but it isn't a failure either.
Movie Review: Great acting and brilliant plot spoiled by too many cliches
Summary: 3 Stars
Even though I rate this film 3 stars, I actually really liked it. Caine and Moore -- usually not one of my fave actresses -- give top-notch performance, and the supporting cast is also fabulous (esp. Wilson, of course), enough for me to have watched this several times. The heist plot itself (supposedly loosely based on "true events" from the 60s) is brilliant.
However, I cannot give the film a higher rating because I must blame the filmmakers for including way too many cliched moments, from the incompetent security guard to an old man doing the impossible (and doing it many times) to "making the world a better place" message. And the 100 million pound sterling question is not that hard to figure out, if you've watched a lot of robbery films. Anyway, I really wish the filmmakers had made the plot tighter and more believable.
Still, a film worth watching... several times, in fact. Moore and Caine are that good.