‘The problem is you’re not smart enough to know how not smart you are…’
If there is any director who knows how to make a heist movie, it’s Steven Soderbergh. Having revitalised the genre with his rightfully lauded Ocean’s movies, Soderbergh has dipped his toe back in to the heist movie waters a couple of times since, but No Sudden Move is the first time he has made a film that could be a spiritual sequel to his previous work. Indeed, some of his original Ocean’s 11 return here, alongside a whole new set of gangsters…
As with classic of the genre The Usual Suspects, a rag tag group of criminals are assembled by an unknown mastermind in order to carry out a mysterious plot. And as with The Usual Suspects, we have Benicio Del Toro playing one of the leads – this time as Ronald Russo, one of the crooks hired to recover a piece of paper with unknown power. Alongside Russo are fellow shady characters Curt (Don Cheadle) and Charley (Kieran Culkin), Matt Hertz (David Harbour), the beleaguered family man tasked with recovering the paper from the safe of his boss and an unrecognisable Brendan Fraser playing Jones – the guy who pulls it all together. Elsewhere, a starry ensemble cast is rounded off by an uncredited Matt Damon, having a ball as an arrogant automobile executive, Jon Hamm as an unscrupulous detective and Ray Liotta as an aging mob boss. There is a lot going on in this movie…
…and that is kind of the problem here. For all it’s twists and turns and sharp dialogue, for all its wonderful acting from a truly A list cast, No Sudden Move is too clever for its own good. The beauty of the Ocean’s movies is that Soderbergh held the audiences’ hand throughout the more complicated moments, often stopping to explain and revel in the unexpected moments. Here, too often I had to pause to catch up with who was screwing over who. That being said, it truly is a wonderful cast, and the real joy comes simply from seeing them all interact with each other.
No Sudden Move won’t win any new converts to the heist genre, but for those of us that love a gangster movie, it’s a worthy addition to a bulging canon.