“I know why you did this. I know it’s not about the money”.
“Nothing important ever is”.
The 2007 heist film Flawless, directed by Michael Radford features one of the most sophisticated Demi Moore performances I’ve ever seen. Set in the 1960s, in the London Diamond Corporation the film centers on the fact that Moore, playing the role of Laura, is frustrated by the fact that as a woman she’s unable to attain a promotion within the company. Her ideas are out of the box and that type of thinking leads her to secretly discovering that she will be let go from her job in a few short weeks. While at her job, she meets Hobbs a janitor, played expertly by the always fantastic Michael Caine. Hobbs sensing the frustration of Laura, confronts her with a plan to steal just enough out of the diamond supply so they can both retire and no one will realize what’s happened. After finding out about her pending termination, Laura is desperate enough to go along with the plan. What happens next would be spoiling the film and while it would be fun to discuss the movie in a spoiler version, the film really would lose a lot if everything is given away. Knowing the who, the where, the what and the why is more than enough information and all of it is broken down nicely in this heist film but the fun of the movie is finding out the how, and that’s something you’ll have to watch yourself to discover.
As i mentioned, the highlight of the film is the performance of Demi Moore. What’s so outstanding about the performance for me, is that through the script, the direction or the choice in her performance, Moore’s character Laura is almost completely asexual. While it’s clear she’s a woman, the thing that’s holding her back, the film does not dwell on her sexuality. She doesn’t do anything that would be considered sexual in nature in the film. There is no flirtation to get her way, no trading sex for promotions and when the heist is to be executed, she’s not put into a position where she needs to distract anyone by using her sexuality. I point this out because in almost all the films I can remember Demi Moore being in, sex is almost always associated with her character. For whatever reason the first two films I think of with her in the staring role are Indecent Proposal and Disclosure. In both of those films she’s a highly sexualized character. Then I think of her “comeback” and I think of Charlie’s Angels and the age differences between her and Ashton Kutcher and it really seems to distract from the fact that when she wants to be and when she’s given the proper material, she’s one hell of an actress. This really is a fun film that requires not a whole lot of attention. It’s not something that will haunt you and make you return to it over and again, but it’s a fun way to spend a couple of hours.