George Clooney, charismatic as he ever was, is a professional bank robber who falls for law enforcement agent Jennifer Lopez. Really interesting good cast includes Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle, Catherine Keener, Dennis Farina,
Treme's Steve Zahn, Albert Brooks, Luis Guzman, Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Keaton (as a particularly thick law enforcement agent: when Farina sees him wearing t-shirt with 'FBI' printed in large letters he asks him ironically "Do you ever wear one saying 'Undercover'? There's a long pause before Keaton replies 'No'.)
Smart and funny screenplay (Scott Frank) from recently deceased Elmore Leonard novel, bounced along by David Holmes' seventies soundalike score and the genius of editor Anne Coates, who gives every character their own freeze frame moment. The famous bar/bedroom scene, which jumps around in time to the audio of their earlier conversation, is sensational - there's four very fast dissolves alone to the first kiss, and tiny moments where the film stops and starts. No doubt it's the sort of scene that's studied in film schools.
Elliot Davis gives it all a rich colour.
She was Oscar and ACE nominated (Kahn won for
Saving Private Ryan), but BAFTA missed it altogether.
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