She has saved more than one
movie like Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella that was about to sink under
its own weight before Helena Bonham Carter made a cameo appearance as the fairy
godmother, injecting much-needed modern tones into the well-known story.
In Oceans 8 Carter
serves with a ensemble cast led by understated Sandra Bullock as Danny Ocean’s
sister Debbie, and with the stillness of the “recently incarcerated,” and Cate
Blanchett wearing skin-tight leather pants in every other scene. Comparisons to
how well a-list actors performed in Oceans 11+ are inevitable, since both
movies were produced by Steven Soderbergh and based on characters developed by the late George Clayton Johnson (for Sinatra’s Oceans 11).
A story in three acts, Oceans
8 starts with assembling the team of grifters, the actual jewelry heist, and
the later worries about getting away with it that includes a tasty twist.
Bullock sets the tone so
other actors must play to her Clutch-Cargo delivery where her face seems frozen
with botox. Bullock’s bright moments include a Heidi Klum impersonation in
German for stalling the museum guards while Blanchett and friends do the wet
work. Viewers noticed that the women had to call in a guy, Shaobo Qin as Yen, the acrobatic “grease
man” from the Oceans movies, for the actual heist.
Racial diversity is observed
with a hacker (Rhianna), a pickpocket (Awkwafina), and a jewelry maker (Mindy Kaling)
rounding out the team. Rhianna has several good moments injecting street humor
into the stabilizing shop-lifting worldview of Bullock. Only Anne Hathaway gets
to act out as the spoiled movie star and supposed mark for their highly
convoluted sting to steal a six-pound diamond necklace called the Toussaint at
the Met Gala.
Habit patterns are
believable for real women, not apeing the men, or trying to appeal to the men,
but pursuing their own interests. Characters live close to the street in NYC so
that visiting the fence living in the suburbs (Sarah Paulson), the only happily
married character who regularly lies to her daughter about her profession, has
the same feel that visiting the suburbs always has.
Spectacle is provided
especially for entrances and exits in ball gowns borrowed from Vogue, cameos
for aging actresses like Marlo Thomas, and tongue-in-cheek jibes (“the ego has
landed”) at the cork-screwed ex-lover played by Richard Armitage. I especially
liked Paulson’s infiltration of Anna
Wintour’s Vogue operation that managed the Met Gala. The world belongs to women
who know how to dress.
Back to Helena Bonham Carter
whose dialogue is bright, especially for the bits they throw her way. (“I
sweat.”) Carter out-acts Bullock and Blanchett in her first scene as an
over-the-hill designer deeply in debt to the IRS. She uses an Irish accent and
excellent comic timing in her scene to view the six-pound necklace at Cartier,
carrying the plot without having to explain it.
Carter’s costume while she
accompanies Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway) on the red carpet, matched by the
home-made headdress and understated mugging, easily outshines Hathaway.
The story’s third act is
saved by a natural performance from James Corden as the insurance adjuster who
brings a Brit attitude to NYC that seems to balance the faux-feminist coolness
of the team of grifters. He has a history of catching the Ocean siblings for
their sins and accuses Bullock of a “two-fer” (the heist and revenge by framing
the ex-lover) without the punch of demanding jail time for the heist. “Eventually, you'll have to let go of this [revenge]," he says.
Of course, the story has a
big hole in the plot. The fake for the stolen necklace is re-evaluated by Cartier on its return
to the vault, prompting the story’s third act about getting away with it.
However, the other zircon pieces are not re-evaluated upon return and found to
be fakes?
All-in-all, a satisfying
chick film that can be watched more than once, if only to savor Carter’s acting skill.
Also, Rhianna may have a future in movies. I’m looking forward to several sequels.
