Demi Moore is excellent as the catalyst for the crime caper with a profoundly personal motive, something we don't discover until late in the film, and Michael Caine is wonderfully dry as the office cleaner with an agenda
Flawless (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:86
Fresh:47
Rotten:39
Average Rating:5.7/10
Consensus: Michael Caine's excellent performance makes Flawless something more than an average heist movie.
Runtime: 1 hr 49 mins
Genre: Dramas
US Box Office: $1,146,525
Synopsis: Michael Radford (IL POSTINO) brings an artful touch to Edward Anderson's screenplay with FLAWLESS, a serious account of a remarkable heist at London Diamond, one of the world's premier diamond... Michael Radford (IL POSTINO) brings an artful touch to Edward Anderson's screenplay with FLAWLESS, a serious account of a remarkable heist at London Diamond, one of the world's premier diamond holders. Set in 1960s London, the film focuses on Laura Quinn (Demi Moore), a woman so driven she's chosen career over personal life and found her way into the boys' club known as the diamond business. As Laura gets overlooked for a manager position year after year, she resolves to work even harder, hoping that, despite her history, her efforts will one day pay off. Ironically, it's Mr. Hobbs (Michael Caine), a night janitor, who takes note of Laura's frustration. The seemingly simple Mr.Hobbs finds a way to use this to his advantage, proposing a plan that will only work with Laura's cooperation. When Laura rejects the offer, Mr. Hobbs encourages her to question just what's holding her back, personally and professionally. While Laura's precarious position within a male-dominated world gives her understandable motive, Mr. Hobbs's is trickier to decipher. The story is based on a fictional heist, but the film is faithful to its setting. Beautiful costumes and sets and strong attention to detail instantly transport viewers back to a different era. Moore's performance may feel wooden at times, but this is fitting considering the obstacles a woman in her position and time would have been up against. Her acting chops come through when she finally breaks down, only to have to pull herself back together for a room full of her male colleagues. Caine seems predictably at ease in his role as Mr. Hobbs, who drives the plot from behind his unassuming mop and duster. Though slow-moving at first, this stylish thriller slyly draws its audience in as its characters take on more depth. [More]
Starring: Demi Moore, Michael Caine, Lambert Wilson, Joss Ackland
Starring: Demi Moore, Michael Caine, Lambert Wilson, Joss Ackland
Director: Michael Radford
Director: Michael Radford
Screenwriter: Edward A. Anderson
Producer: Mark Williams, Michael Pierce
Composer: Stephen Warbeck
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
Reviews for Flawless
Flawless isn't impossibly joyless, but it's a lot less fun than it ought to be...
Michael Radford's leisurely paced Flawless digs itself into a deep, cavernous hole in its opening scene and never manages to crawl out of it.
Flawless is a gimcrack, a genre exercise, yet it's a confidence game in the best sense of the phrase. [Director] Radford knows the rules - when to bend them, when to break them, and when to play by them. That's an increasingly rare skill.
Despite a finale that fails to live up to the promise of its premise, Flawless still manages to be a polished throwback to the great British crime thrillers of the ’60s, and a welcome return to form for director Michael Radford.
It's a satisfying picture enhanced by a few great sequences, and proves there's still plenty of life in heist cinema.
Ignore the dull framing device and this is a watchable period crime drama. Pity about the dull, oft-used title though.
The answers to its most intriguing puzzles disappoint, and the final motive provided for this near-perfect scheme can only be described as flawed.
Screenwriter Edward Anderson drops the South African angle in favor of more conventional developments and has a hard time bringing this across the finish line without a number of implausibilities.
Flawless, directed with a fine eye by Michael Radford, is a diamond-heist thriller that will make you nostalgic for the smart, classy caper films of a certain era.
For all its stodginess, however, Flawless is a reasonably good time, for one reason. The reason's name is Maurice Micklewhite, better known as Michael Caine.
As far as what the filmmakers constructed, the spirit of the title term is close enough to forgive blemishes that don't really spoil the fun.
For the most part Radford turns in a hushed, marble-polished heist film with a genuine sense of tension and mystery
Cleverly written and brilliantly made ... the type of classy and tasteful British crime-drama that Caine has long been associated with.
If not worth its weight in gold (or diamonds), at least worth the price of a movie ticket.
Like many Christmases, the whole thing leaves you stressed, exasperated and longing to leave for home.
Latest News for Flawless
November 28, 2008:
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