Ocean's Eight
The Ocean’s franchise gets a gender switch in Gary Ross’s impossibly classy, well-connected caper.
Dreams are made of this: Sarah Paulson, Sandra Bullock and Rihanna
The great
heistmeisters of history have always been men. But in the Ocean family, crime
runs in the DNA. So now that Danny Ocean is dead and Debbie Ocean is on parole,
the mother of all heists is ready for enactment. Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock)
has had five years, eight months and twelve days to plan the minutiae of this
particular operation. All she needs now is to recruit her crew – with one
proviso. “A ‘him’ gets noticed,” she argues, “but a ‘her’ gets ignored.” So she
sets about enlisting an all-female support act. And what a motley crew they
are: Australia’s Cate Blanchett, the Indian-American Mindy Kaling, the rapper Awkwafina
(of Chinese and South Korean heritage), Rihanna of Barbados and an occasionally
Irish-accented Helena Bonham Carter. Their goal: to steal an antique diamond
necklace worth $150 million.
Due to its
value, the necklace has been buried behind five-feet of solid concrete in a
Cartier vault in New York. The plan is to get it round the neck of the fashion
icon Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway), who happens to be co-hosting the Met Gala,
the most exclusive invitation-only party in the USA. The event is such a big
deal that it merited its own documentary, The
First Monday in May, which featured Rihanna – the real Rihanna – in the
most famous gown of the 21st century (Guo Pei's so-called ‘omelette
dress’). And the necklace, even if Daphne Kluger can convince Cartier to
release it for the occasion, comes with its own security detail and a magnetically
activated release switch. Still, where there’s a will…
Since Debbie
was incarcerated for fraud almost six years ago, technology has come a long
way. But while banks may be more secure, there are hackers like ‘Nine-Ball’ (a
ganja-belching Rihanna in dreadlocks) who can work miracles with a laptop. And
these women have brains as well as chutzpah. The scene in which Debbie wafts
into a high-end Manhattan store (Bergdorf Goodman) and walks out with a bagful
of goodies is an act of mind-expanding chicanery. But you’d need her balls to
pull it off.
Since the Ocean’s trilogy grossed $1.17 billion
worldwide, and, according to one report, movies about women have, on average, grossed
$45.5 million more than recent films about men, a gender re-boot made
commercial sense. And with this line-up of Oscar-endorsed actresses and fashion
dignitaries (Anna Wintour plays herself), the film exudes nothing if not class.
Even if such shenanigans fail to rock your boat, there are plenty of peripheral
pleasures. Whether it’s an English insurance-fraud investigator impishly embodied
by James Corden or a Delacroix masterpiece given a gender switch by Banksy, it’s
all a sleekly entertaining, if slightly guilty pleasure.
Coincidental
or not, the crowning scene of triumph is set to Nancy Sinatra belting out ‘These
Boots Are Made for Walkin'’, Nancy being the daughter of Frank Sinatra, star of
the original Ocean’s Eleven (back in
1960). Either way, it’s a worthy climax to this ritzy, classy hymn to female
empowerment which slips down like a goji berry sorbet.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne
Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter,
Richard Armitage, James Corden, Nathanya Alexander, Dakota Fanning, Elliott
Gould, Shaobo Qin, Marlo Thomas, Dana Ivey, Mary Louise Wilson, Elizabeth
Ashley, Griffin Dunne, Common, Katie Holmes, Anna Wintour, Serena Williams, Olivia
Munn, Maria Sharapovia, Andrew Bolton, Jaime King, Heidi Klum, John McEnroe.
Dir Gary Ross, Pro Steven Soderbergh and Susan Ekins, Screenplay Gary Ross and Olivia Milch, from a story by Gary Ross, Ph Eigil Bryld, Pro Des Alex DiGerlando, Ed
Juliette Welfling, Music Daniel
Pemberton, Costumes Sarah Edwards.
Warner Bros. Pictures/Village Roadshow Pictures/Smoke House Pictures/Larger Than Life Productions-Warner Brothers.
110 mins. USA. 2018. Rel: 18 June 2018. Cert. 12A.