Out of Sight

Out of Sight (1998) is an Elmore Leonard adaptation and the film that pulled Soderbergh's career back together. It also turned George Clooney from a television actor into a film star. Jack Foley robs banks without carrying a gun. Escaping from prison he ends up putting federal marshal Karen Sisco in the boot of a car. The few minutes they spend in there are the heart of the film: two people in the dark talking about movies while something starts between them. Soderbergh keeps breaking time apart with jumps forward and back, freeze frames, and shifts in colour. Miami is hot and orange, Detroit is cold and blue. None of this is decoration. It is how the film says these two come from different worlds. The seduction scene in the hotel bar is among the most cited romantic sequences in modern cinema and contains no nudity at all. It is built out of freeze frames. Jennifer Lopez gives one of her best performances here. Good for: crime comedy, sharp dialogue, and nineties American cinema. Anyone who loves the Ocean's films will find the source here. Less good for: there is violence, though not much. The real adjustment is the pace, which is loose by design.