Le casse du siècle

Set in London in 1960, the aptly named "Flawless" features Demi Moore as Laura Quinn, the first woman to become senior negotiator at Lon Di, the world's premier diamond firm. However, Quinn has pretty much hit the glass ceiling career-wise with the company, and when she discovers that she is about to be let go from the firm, she agrees to join forces with the night janitor (Michael Caine) in his plan to rob the vault of a thermos-full of uncut diamonds.

"Flawless" is a good old-fashioned caper tale done with an abundance of wit, intelligence and style and just enough twists and turns in the plot to keep the audience on its toes throughout. Moore and Caine make a perfect team as the duo plotting the heist, while director Michael Radford generates enough suspense for a dozen average thrillers. The script by Edward Anderson even manages to squeeze in some points about early '60's feminism and South African apartheid along the way.

Definitely worth seeing.

I recall some woefully erroneous movie critic writing about Michael Caine in the late 1960s that Caine was the sort of actor whose career would have three brief stages: 1. Get me Michael Caine; 2. Get me a Michael Caine type; 3. Who is Michael Caine? Needless to say, that movie critic is now long gone and forgotten, while Michael Caine has simply gotten better and better, aging like fine wine. This is not a big "message" movie, or a huge budget extravaganza, but rather it is an extremely well-made and entertaining and suspenseful crime film with very human characters you can really care about. It is set in 1960 England, in which Caine, a janitor, attempts a spectacular robbery of precious jewels. With the able support of Demi Moore, in one of her best performances, and the fine direction of Michael Radford, and a wonderful attention to the little details that make a film so much better, FLAWLESS is very much worth the price of admission. And Mr. Caine, with his finely nuanced performance, a man who can make a glance or a subtle movement speak more than a ton of histrionics by lesser actors, is topping the bill. Need I say more?

2 things that i want to comments here. 1st : Brilliant story. 2nd : No sex scenes. (Great to have this movie). Opening of this movie was attracted me very good with 50's background music playing along, so curious. All actors & actress role acting very solid. Me just keep on thinking how a lot of diamond can be disappear a few hours. But only one things that look not so natural was during Laura Quinn old. Her eyes look so fresh!!!..... Anyway it was a really really great story. I suggest you people out there recommend this movie very much. You will know how much your money can by. I would like to give seven out of ten for this brilliant story.

Most heist movies of the last 10 years tend to share the similar done-to-death storyline as they fail to come up with any originality. Such films mostly rely on extravagant special effects and over-the-top action sequences to capture the audience's attention. Of course there are a few exceptions and a majority of these exceptions tend to be gems. Such is Radford's 'Flawless'. Of course merely labelling it as a heist movie wouldn't be doing justice for the depth of the story exceeds beyond the robbery.

The opening sequence of a diamond being extracted from the African mud and then it's transformation till it lands on a woman's finger may look familiar but it doesn't feel stale especially how it gets straight to the point in the following sequence where a pompous young journalist meets an aged Laura Quinn for an interview. The sequence thereafter takes us back to 60's London. Radford cleverly tackles themes of sexism, blood diamond, class etc by incorporating them withing the story and never sounding preachy. He deals with some heavy issues in a cleverly subtle way.

Through scenes in the bank, he also distinguishes the contrast between the status of men and women in 60's London. It doesn't feel to be such a long time ago yet it is surprising that Quinn is the only woman in the bank (and perhaps the world as is hinted) to work as an administrator while each and every one of her colleagues are men. Clearly she's a woman trying to survive in a man's world and continues to struggle as she is continuously passed over for promotion and soon learns that her employment at the bank will be terminated shortly. However, when the janitor comes up with an unexpected proposition, she reluctantly sees a way out.

'Flawless' is both story driven and character driven while being atmospheric. The writing is solid. The witty dialogues are loaded with dry and sarcastic humour and there's a philosophical element to most of them. The characters are wonderfully developed and the story moves at a smooth pace. The 60s atmosphere is well created and I liked how it contrasted with modern day London.

Caine and Moore are in top form. Caine's gentlemanlike Mr. Hobbes is not your typical criminal. He's polite, charming but eventually the viewer sees that things are not as they seemed. Michael Caine easily plays his part with élan. Demi Moore is fantastic too. Many have complained her accent bouncing back and forth between British and American but that makes sense because Quinn is an American who's been living in London for more than fifteen years. Thus it is believable that her accent would be distorted. Her reaction in the scenes with Hobbes and Finch are remarkable. Some of the best sequences in 'Flawless' are the ones between Moore and Caine and Moore and Wilson. Lambert Wilson delivers a very good performance in a strong supporting role.

I didn't know much about the film before seeing it. Unfortunately, such movies do not get the deserved attention during its release but I hope it gradually gets the well deserved recognition. What caught my attention prior to viewing was the odd but seemingly interesting pairing of Caine and Moore and when I finally got to see this refreshing gem, I was more than glad with a more than satisfying film experience. I've already included this little film treasure in my shelf of DVDs.

"Flawless" is a very unusual heist film. While this is generally a wonderful genre with MANY great caper pictures (such as "Rififi", "Oceans Eleven", "Grand Slam" and "Bob le Flambeur"), it's also a genre that seems to have little in the way of twists to make newer heist films worth seeing. With "Flawless" they managed to come up with a dandy twist...making it yet another lovely heist film worth your time.

When the story begins, Laura (Demi Moore) is an elderly woman in the present day being interviewed by a reporter about her extraordinary career. It seems that back in the 1950s, Laura was a real groundbreaker...an executive in the diamond industry in London when other women only became secretaries. But the interview goes in a way the reporter didn't suspect when Laura admits that long, long ago she was involved in a huge diamond robbery...one for which she managed never to be caught. Now, with the statute of limitations behind her, she's about to tell her story.

It seems that in the 1950s, Laura is a very talented and capable executive with London Di, a huge diamond firm. But again and again and again, men are being advanced to upper management and she has come to realize she has hit the so-called 'glass ceiling' and because she was a woman, she'd never go any further. This is rough....but imagine how frustrated she becomes when the company janitor, Hobbs (Michael Caine), tells her that he read a letter in the CEO's office...and it said that they were going to fire her and blackball her in the industry!

Why would Hobbs tell Laura this? Well, after showing her a copy of the letter, he lets her in on his plan...to rob the vault of many millions of pounds worth of gems. And, with her being angry and hurt, she reluctantly agreed to help. What's next? See the film.

There were some very good performances in this movie. Joss Acklund is wonderful as the soulless CEO....a vicious and imposing figure that few other living actors would be able to play well. Moore is also very good....and gave a much better performance than usual because she was given excellent material. And, well, Michael Caine is Michael Caine! Fine acting all around in this one.

So is the film worth seeing? Absolutely. But I must warn you....folks with short attention spans, teenagers and children or folks who need explosions and boobs instead of plot might not enjoy this picture. But I thought it was terrific...and I do like how it managed to make you feel no sorry for the victims (after all, the whole blood diamond angle is alluded to in the film) and breathe new life into the genre. My only quibble, and it's a minor one, is that Moore's character seems a bit wishy-washy about the robbery late in the movie...something I would have preferred hadn't been in the story.

I cannot, however, for the life of me understand why the film only has a paltry 6.8 average currently on IMDB...it's much better than that.