Ocean's Eleven contains a reasonably entertaining caper, amusing
dialogue and such. But in the end I didn't like it. See, if you're going
to cast criminals as the good guys, you have to make their crimes acceptable.
This isn't hard to do in movieland — if the film establishes that the
crimes only hurt people worse than the criminals are, the audience will
usually go along.
This movie doesn't do that. The guy that the title gang robs is a
jerk, yeah. Does nasty things to people who cross him and whatnot. But the
gang's ringleader, the George Clooney character... when it comes right down
to it, he's just some creep stalking a woman. The bits where his ex-wife
keeps telling him she wants him to leave her alone but he keeps pressing and
pressing — in my book, that makes him the bad guy. And that she then
has a change of heart and realizes that he really was the best guy
for her? What a fabulous message to send to all those guys out there with
their names on restraining orders! Memo to filmmakers: no means no.
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