Women take over

Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven remake is a hard movie tolive up to.

Its starry charm was backed by a breezy and deceptively densescript full of memorable characters, dizzyingly complex logistics and livelyfilmmaking that Soderbergh himself couldn’t even recreate in the two sequels.

But it is undeniable that even the near-perfect Eleven was missing somethingpretty major: women. You know, besides Julia Roberts, that blackjack dealer andthe one exotic dancer.

Women take over

Ocean’s 8

Starring: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway

Director: Gary Ross

Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime

Rating: PG13

RUNTIME: 110 Mins

So why not, 17 years later, fix that egregious oversight bygathering up a few Oscar and Emmy winners and nominees, a Grammy-winner and abuzzy comedienne to keep that Ocean’s franchise going and acknowledge the otherhalf of the human population? If only Ocean’s 8 was as fresh and smart as that first one. (Hint: It’s not for lack ofstar charisma or talent.)

Sandra Bullock anchors the cast as Debbie Ocean, thenever-before-mentioned sister of George Clooney’s Danny Ocean, who has taken upthe family business to varying degrees of success (we meet her in a parole hearing)and prefers to work without ‘hims’. “Hers,” she later explains, can gounnoticed.

And indeed, Debbie uses what could be a handicap very muchto her advantage in a rollicking shoplifting spree at Bergdorf’s. It helps, ofcourse, when you look like Sandra Bullock and you happen to have left jail infull hair, makeup and cocktail dress. But it’s still quite a bit of fun seeingher act the part of a wealthy and entitled shopper who tries to demand a refundfor the items she’s literally just pinched from their shelves. 90 percent ofher method is simply looking like she belongs and taking advantage of theprivileges that affords her.

Don’t expect this level of class or gender commentary fromthe rest of the film, however. Ocean’s 8 suffers from a bit of tonal whiplash.Half the time it seems to be veering into grotesque worship of brands andcelebrity.

Debbie’s plan is to steal a $150 million diamond necklace.In order to do so, she and her assembled team of savants have to firstinfiltrate the orbit of a vapid celeb, Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway), andconvince her to wear said necklace to the Met Gala, where they’ll steal it anddivide the earnings accordingly (a cool $16.5 million each).

The team includes Lou (Cate Blanchett), who dresses like aglam rocker and spends her time watering down well vodka for profit; Rose Weil(Helena Bonham Carter), a kooky past-her-prime fashion designer desperate for acomeback; a jeweler in a rut, Amita (Mindy Kaling); Nine Ball (Rihanna), ahacker in dreadlocks; Constance (Awkwafina), a pickpocket; and Tammy (SarahPaulson), a suburban mom who can’t quite quit her white collar crime ways.

While Blanchett and Bullock are predictably solid in theirroles and get at least a few memorable moments of worthy banter, it’s Hathawaywho really steals the film with a wickedly on-point satiric turn of a spoiledstar. It is Hathaway’s Miranda Priestly moment, and it could have only beenmade better had she gone full-meta and played a character named Anne Hathaway.

The celebrity skewering is first-rate, but, for the mostpart, if you’ve seen Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven, you’ve basically seen Ocean’s8 too. Director and co-writer Gary Ross (The Hunger Games) follows familiarstory beats and attempts, unsuccessfully, to ape Soderbergh’s filmmaking style.And his glimpse inside the Met Gala makes that famously glamorous event lookawfully pedestrian.

It also doesn’t help that the stakes never seem all thatreal in Ocean’s 8, and when they do finally get an adversary, in a detectiveplayed by James Corden, it’s more for laughs.

There was a danger to Ocean’s Eleven and a thrill in seeingthat team succeed. Here, none of the women seem to have any fallibility at all,and you never find yourself doubting whether or not they can pull it off.Perhaps there is something subversive to the idea that all Debbie has to do issocial shame two security guys from entering a women’s restroom, but we’rethere for something more elaborate too.

That’s kind of the overall problem of Ocean’s 8. It’s allpredicated on the fact that women are often underestimated. But in making thatpoint, it’s also somehow underestimated the audience who still should beentitled to a smart, fun heist, no matter who is pulling it off.

- Film Writer Lindsey Bahr

Lindsey’s verdict: 3/5

Showing in theatres across Bahrain starting tomorrow.