An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Charlotte O'Sullivan's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Michael Radford.
Cast: Demi Moore, Michael Caine, Lambert Wilson, Nathaniel Parker, Joss Ackland
Description: In swinging '60s London, Laura Quinn is the only female executive in the upper echelons of London Diamonds Corp. However, she remains frustrated by her inability to clamber up another rung on the career ladder, always passed over for promotion in favour of an inexperienced, male colleague. When a scandal in South Africa threatens to derail a lucrative business relationship with the Russians, Laura's bold proposal saves the day and the company's blushes, yet she learns soon after from aging janitor Hobbs that the company's chairman intends to sack her. Consumed with rage, Laura is intrigued when Hobbs proposes revenge: by helping him to pull off the heist of diamonds from the safe.
Country: UK/LUX. 2007. 108mins
Double diamond: Hobbs (Michael Caine) and Laura (Demi Moore) plot the heist
GK Chesterton’s astute hero, Father Brown, once observed: “Nobody ever notices postmen somehow.” The old janitor at the heart of Michael Radford’s unusual thriller makes a similar point.
It’s 1960. Hobbs (Michael Caine) works at LonDi — a London firm that stockpiles diamonds — and has managed to overhear enough conversations to plan a robbery. As he tells the firm’s only female employee, Laura Quinn (Demi Moore), his menial job makes him all but invisible to his “betters”.
He persuades her to help him put the plan into action — and she’s keen to go along because, thanks to her gender, she too gets overlooked. At 38, she has become a manager but will never be promoted.
On the night of the heist, she plays her part almost to perfection. The next morning, she discovers she’s a pawn in a much bigger game.
Films in this genre are often aimed at twentysomething men, blokes who want to see power tools, car chases and taut female flesh. Even Hitchcockian thrillers (which appeal to both sexes) tend to feature a slow-burning central romance. Flawless works because it keeps us guessing as to the nature of the central relationship.
Newcomer Edward Anderson wrote the part of Hobbs with Caine in mind and the glove fits beautifully. Now best known to youngsters as Batman’s butler, he is smart, charming and so bitter it makes your eyes water.
Moore’s first big part was opposite Caine in Blame it on Rio — what a short heyday hers has proved to be. Yet our sense of her as a vulnerable commodity works well in this context.
Sometimes she can seem too immobile yet, intermittently, she casts a powerful spell. She and director Radford conspire to make us warm to Laura. Trapped as she is by society’s demands but also the demands she makes of herself, you feel she relishes her vice-tight belts and hard heels, even as she resents the way in which they constrain her.
There’s a fabulously poetic sequence in which we see, as if through her eyes, the young, male LonDi employees move, fleet-footed, down the building’s marble stairs. They may be cogs in the machine, but they are harmonious cogs. Laura can only ever strike a discordant note.
That title is a hostage to fortune. The plot has several gaping holes. There’s also some cheesy dialogue. And the film’s “modern-day” start and end are so naffly old-fashioned it hurts. Yet for all the imperfections, Flawless is a film you find yourself rooting for. Heists involving a keen sense of history are pleasant to stumble across. And the bottom line — as at LonDi —is money. If the film does well, more like it (but hopefully better) will follow.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
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