Flawless

The bad pacing and strange infatuation with Moore smoking and wearing high heels results in a picture that lacks snap and labours slowly through the plot twists.

Michael Caine and Demi Moore star in Flawless.
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This robbery thriller promises a lot. Not least Michael Caine rekindling memories of some of his great films from the 1960s by playing a janitor masterminding the robbery of the fictional London Diamond Corporation and Demi Moore playing a female executive constantly overlooked for promotion because she is not part of the boys club. But like the last film Caine and Moore appeared in together, the 1984 comedy Blame It on Rio, this is turgid. On learning that she is about to be sacked, the brainy female negotiator decides to join the janitor in an implausible robbery. Set in 1960, this is not a film that either star would want to be remembered for. Moore is particularly bad, her Madonna-lite London Cockney accent slipping more times than a novice ice skater. The film is bookended with the actress made up as an older woman, but does she have to look like Bill Clinton? Caine sleepwalks with his brush. But the biggest crime is the direction of Michael Radford. The bad pacing and strange infatuation with Moore smoking and wearing high heels results in a picture that lacks snap and labours slowly through the plot twists. Unsurprisingly, the robbery is not what it first appears and indeed had a sanctimonious edge that grates. Seek out Erin Brockovich if you need to watch a film about a frustrated woman bringing down an evil empire.