Ocean's 8 hits most of its marks...so why don't people like it?

There was a fairly high profile article on the BBC’s entertainment website which asked whether Ocean’s 8 was a waste of talent. Leaving aside the obvious and inherent click-bait I still couldn’t help but wonder about the question.

Not about whether it was true but mostly why no one had asked the same of Ocean’s Eleven (2001), Ocean’s Twelve (2004), or indeed Ocean’s Thirteen (2007)? The latter two qualify as a waste of celluloid never mind talent, but there is a whole load of cinematic snobbery in the enquiry.

Ocean’s 8 has no grander ambition than to entertain which, for the most part, it does. Its USP comes from being a gender-flipped version of the Ocean’s Eleven series. Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett take the George Clooney and Brad Pitt roles, Clooney’s Danny Ocean having died sometime in the past 11 years. The cause of death isn’t mentioned but I’m going for a combination of shame and embarrassment after Ocean’s Thirteen.

However by the BBC’s lights we’re invited to see something inherently unworthy in a predominantly female cast. It’s okay for Clooney and Pitt and Matt Damon to exercise their ludic tendencies but Bullock, Blanchett, Anne Hathaway are presumably only allowed out for serious stuff. They are evidently condemned to a career full of Lysistrata and assorted anguished maternal roles.

Like I said, click bait and I’ve spent more time on it than it deserves.

Moving on. Ocean’s 8 is far from perfect but it is good fun and, to its credit, not once does it make a big deal out of its largely female cast. There are no nods or winks and, to a certain extent, the plot unwinds on a gender neutral basis.

Where Danny Ocean wanted to rob casinos, sister Debbie (Bullock) has her eye on robbing the annual Met Gala, specifically a rare necklace worth $150 million which will be on show there. She has been planning the robbery while she was in prison and now she is out she is ready to execute.

The film follows the standard tropes of a classic heist movie; first you put the gang together, then you outline the inevitably fiendishly complicated plot, then you carry out the robbery and, finally, you reveal what they were really up to.

It’s tried and tested and in the best of the genre – The Thomas Crown Affair (1968 or 1999), The Anderson Tapes (1971), or The Hot Rock (1972) – it works to create a soufflé-light confection.  Ocean’s 8 is no soufflé, it’s more of a fondant - mostly light but with a gooey bit in the middle – but it’s still satisfying.

That seems to be the fault of the director Gary Ross and the editor Juliette Welfling. The pacing of the film is fine for the first act but goes seriously awry during the heist itself and there are parts which should be crisp but turn out quite leaden. The gang’s big moment of triumph – to the tune of These Boots Are Made for Walking – should be the money shot. Instead it’s thrown away and a talented cast are sold short.

As is often the case in ensembles the balance of performance is uneven.  Sarah Paulson and Mindy Kaling, for example, don’t get enough to do and Awkwafina is pretty much just a plot point. However Sandra Bullock, for my money the most underrated female lead in the business, is marvellous and there is a nice chemistry between her and Cate Blanchett. Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham-Carter, and Rihanna, also get their chance to shine.

At the end of the day the star power, the sheer scale of the crime and the brio and invention with which it is carried out should be enough to keep the audience happy. Inevitably I suspect a sequel may be in the works and that’s fine by me, I mean it can’t be worse than Ocean’s Thirteen.