Laura Quinn (Demi Moore) is bright, driven and at almost 40 still ravishingly beautiful. Unfortunately, although her bosses at the London Diamond Corporation appreciate her smarts and tenacity there isn’t a chance they’ll ever promote the woman to any sort of position of power. It is the 1960’s, after all, and while the times they are a changing they haven’t done so enough to help Laura break the glass ceiling.

Michael Caine and Demi Moore in Magnolia Pictures' Flawless

Deceptively mild-mannered night janitor Hobbs (Michael Caine) notices this about the woman, can feel the exasperation at being passed over again and again for promotion in the slightest brush of her hand. That’s why he approaches her with his plan to rob the vault of a handful of uncut diamonds. It’s also why he knows she won’t turn him in. Laura wants revenge just as much as he does; she just doesn’t realize his plans are far more grandiose then he’s letting on.

By and large, Michael Radford’s (Il Postino) new film Flawless is an easy-breezy joy. The central mystery is a good one, the script by newcomer Edward Anderson is crafty without ever insulting the audience’s intelligence, the supporting cast shines in character roles filled with richly satisfying shades of grey while Moore shimmers in what is easily the best part she’s had in over a decade.

Best of all is the smoothly seductive Caine. The one-time Alfie and The Italian Job ringleader may no longer have those matinee idol good looks but he still has that same crooked smile and come-hither eye raise that could make just about anyone – male or female – pay intoxicatingly rapt attention to him. He’s firmly in control, building Hobbs step by step and bit by bit and by the time his real machinations come to light I was so involved with the guy he could have been stealing my grandmother’s wedding ring and I’d probably wouldn’t have cared.

So what’s the problem? It’s the framing device Radford and Anderson use to tell their story. It’s awkward and terse. Worse, it is completely unbelievable, the final couple minutes so bizarrely out of step with the rest of the production I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d suddenly been transported into a completely different theater than the one I had started in. The rose-colored glasses the filmmakers suddenly forced me to wear were decidedly uncomfortable, and while I appreciate their I’d-like-to-give-the-world-a-Coke mentality I certainly didn’t want to be forced to take a sip myself. 

Still, at its best Flawless is a deliciously sinful good time. Watching Moore twist and bend under the weight of Caine’s noirish plan is absolutely exhilarating, the skill at which she finally puts her superior mind to use extricating herself from the predicament even more so. The film is slight, sure, but it is also a lot of fun, and no amount of misplaced moralistic sermonizing at the end can steal those well-earned good vibes away from me.

Film Rating: êê1/2  (out of 4)

Additional Links:

-  Flawless Theatrical Trailer