Out of Sight is a sizzling crime caper film directed by Steven Soderbergh and based on the novel by the same name by Elmore Leonard. The 1998 film is regarded in some circles are Soderbergh’s “comeback film” after releasing a series of critically-acclaimed but financially fruitless films. Out of Sight won the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Screenplay and won National Society of Film Critic’s awards for Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. The film was only a modest success in its theatrical release and didn’t make that much at the box office despite a rather stacked cast and charming dialogue.
Out of Sight revolves around the relationship between a United States Marshal named Karen Sisco, played by Jennifer Lopez, and a career thief named Jack Foley, played by George Clooney. The relationship begins after a prison escape, as Foley takes Sisco hostage in the trunk of a car driven by his associate and right-hand man, Buddy (Ving Rhames). After the escape, Foley lets Sisco go and begins to work on a “last job” with Buddy and Glenn (Steve Zahn) that involves the robbery of a shady businessman named Ripley (Albert Brooks). Before the plan is formulated entirely, Glenn runs off on Buddy and Foley and attempts to work the plan with a group of cold-blooded and murderous thugs, led by Maurice (Don Cheadle). With Sisco in pursuit, the robbery becomes progressively more intricate and the amorous tension between Sisco and Foley becomes more observable.
The rights to Out of Sight were purchased by Danny DeVito after his success with the 1995 film adaptation of Get Shorty, also an Elmore Leonard piece. Apparently the source for Leonard’s Out of Sight came from the author seeing a picture in the Detroit News featuring a female federal marshal with a shotgun over her hip. Leonard began to pen his story about a striking marshal and some of the incidents she would get into on the job and, soon enough, Out of Sight came together. The character of Karen Sisco was also used for a brief television show that never really got off the ground.
Out of Sight works as a film because of the characters and because of the exceptional dialogue shared between them. While comparisons to other dialogue-heavy capers are to be anticipated each time a character has a conversation that isn’t crucial to the plot, what drives Out of Sight isn’t so much the unrelated dialogue as the dialogue that spins the web of seduction and apprehension between its characters. With such rich depth, Soderbergh’s film works with its disjointed timeline to provide a double-edged sword of intrigue and a cast of characters with individual interests and great personal depth. Each character is worthy of examination and infatuation and each character is performed fluently and with intrinsic style, making for a marvellous ensemble piece that works like few others are able to.
The film also works because of its intelligence. The plot is based on the carelessness and absurdity of criminal activity without turning itself into a slapstick formula piece. Out of Sight functions because each character maintains their “cool,” despite having several situations spiral significantly out of control. Characters trip repetitively, only to meet their downfall as a result of their inherent inelegance. Characters take drugs, only to trip up as a result of the inconsistencies patterned through their drug use. Characters fall in love, only to be tripped up as a consequence of their passions. While the relationship between Sisco and Foley surely forms the centerpiece of the tail, the essence of Out of Sight is largely based around the characters around the central relationship and how the contributions from this shady and scandalous cast of characters impacts the normative relationships between human beings.
Out of Sight is mercilessly stylish, humorous, and charismatic. It is a dazzling look at crime and romance that pulls no punches and maintains a sort of cool virtuousness when other films would have faltered down roads of garishness and weak attempts at grit. Out of Sight works because it has the capacity to make its audience feel good about watching it and maintains its inherent integrity because of the strength of the source material. It is a valuable, riveting, and clever crime caper.
8/10
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