Flawless (PG-13) **½

By Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald

The inspired pairing of Demi Moore and Michael Caine as a pair of thieves in the diamond-heist semi-caper movie Flawless goes a long way toward overcoming the film’s slack, leisurely pacing. Moore and Caine (who previously played father and daughter in Blame It on Rio) have an unusual rapport. The film’s period setting — London, 1960 — helps, too: Director Michael Radford (Il Postino) and screenwriter Edward A. Anderson literally work the era’s details into the plot: One of the big obstacles the jewel thieves face in stealing the loot are these newfangled machines surrounding the vault called ”video security cameras.”

Those thieves are the unlikely pair of Laura Quinn (Moore), a female executive at the London Diamond Co., and Mr. Hobbs, a longtime janitor at the company’s offices. It is Hobbs who cooks up the plan to steal a Thermos full of jewels from the vault, convincing the skeptical Quinn it will be payback for getting passed over for promotions and having her ideas stolen so many times by her male co-workers.

Besides, such a small amount of stones wouldn’t even be noticed, since the company’s vault is overflowing with them. The heist in Flawless comes at the film’s midpoint, but although Radford wrings some nice suspense from the sequence, the theft isn’t his primary focus here. It’s what happens next — an insurance investigator (Lambert Wilson) sets up shop at the company and starts interviewing the company’s employees to find out where the diamonds went — that brings to the forefront the themes of sexual and class discrimination, along with the exploitation by rich companies of poor countries. That’s all fine and good, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of your lead characters.

Cast: Demi Moore, Michael Caine, Lambert Wilson, Joss Ackland

Director: Michael Radford

Screenwriter: Edward A. Anderson

Producers: Mark Williams, Michael Pierce

A Magnolia Pictures release. Running time: 106 minutes. Vulgar language, adult themes.

This story was originally published April 10, 2008 at 2:04 AM.