Flawless

Rating: PG
Running time: 108 minutes

Some info:
1) Wiki Article
2) IMDB Profile
3) Official Site (English)

At first glance, looking at the main leads of the movie, I wondered why this wasn’t shown in Singapore. After watching, I kind of realised why it wouldn’t be very profitable to bring this movie in anyway. That aside, it seems that this movie isn’t very well distributed across the globe. I wonder why.

Well, the film begins in modern time, with a female reporter interviews an old lady named Laura Quinn. They had some talk and Quinn took out a huge diamond and of course the reporter is nothing less than stunned to see such an exquisite piece. The story then moves back nearly half a century back into the 1960, where the builk of the movie is actually set.

This movie tells the tale of Quinn (played by Demi Moore), who’s the only female worker striving to make her mark in the higher management of the world’s biggest diamond company, London Diamond Corporation (LDC) and also of a cleaner of LDC, Hobbs (played by Michael Caine) who was going to retire from his job soon. Being in a male dominated industry, Quinn works extra hard to stay in the game, being the earliest to arrive at work, and the latest to leave. However, that diligence of hers does not exactly pay off as she was always overlooked whenever a promotion took place. She feels gutted, but continues to put up with these things until one day Hobbs told her that she was about to be dismissed by the company she slogged so hard for.

Well this is where the plot really starts developing and the show becomes better. Disbelieving at first, by checking through her own employment record, she realised Hobbs said nothing but the truth. Of course, after putting so much effort for the company, even at the expense of her own private life, to be not only be passed over at promotions but also be dismissed from the company, one can just imagine how much hatred for the company just sprung out overnight.

Hobbs on the other hand was going to retire, but claims (note the use of the word here =P) that the retirement sum is too little and had plans of his own to beef that up. He had a plan to steal some diamonds from the vault within LDC, but he required the help of Quinn who had, in theory, better access to where the code to the vault is kept. Of course, the code has to be stolen in order for the movie to progress further, so I’ll just skip the details as to how the code was obtained. Hobbs said the plan was to steal 1 thermoflask worth if diamonds and that ought to be enough to both fulfill his aim of an increase in retirement sum as well as a “parting gift” Quinn takes away when she’s to be fired from the company.

Well, their plans were nearly crushed as LDC suddenly installs security cameras over all major walkways and common areas in the building, including the entire corridor leading to the entrance of the vault. Being the very smart and resourceful Quinn, she managed to find a small loophole in the security system though strictly speaking the stringent timing is gonna be hard on Hobbs, who could barely walk without limping.

On the fateful night, Quinn still helped out in order to make the operation a success. Indeed, the break-in was a success. But to Quinn’s horror (and my surprise), all the diamonds (estimated to be 2 tons) were gone from the vault, yet nothing showed up on the security cameras, nor any signs of external aid. Indeed, this is the one thing that kept me curious for the rest of the entire show. Without this, I’d probably just be bored to death by this movie. An old man who limps being able to empty the entire vault of diamonds alone, without being discovered. The best part was that the entire building was locked down from the night before to the next morning (a company security practice).

Needless to say, Quinn was thoroughly shocked. Since she was involved and her life and career (or whatever was left of it) was at stake, it’s only natural that she tried to find out what exactly happened. And of course, being the wise director, the details were not at all revealed until the very late parts of the movie. It’s like the only worthy part of the show (plot wise). Things turn quite ugly and Quinn nearly broke down trying to decide find out more about the disappearance of the diamonds while trying to continue working like she had always did (while being guilty for being part of the scheme, as well as the thought of being fired which she wasn’t supposed to know).

Anyway things happen, and in the end Quinn ended up with 100 million pounds (imagine that amount in 1960…) in a swiss bank account that Hobbs left behind for her. The story then moves back to modern time and the movie heads for some wrapping up. There’s also some explanation of how the money was spent by Quinn, to help various charitable organisations with the huge sum of money she had. Before leaving the reporter, Quinn passed an envelope of her own story, and it included some of the words Hobbs once said to her. It made those sentences and phrases quite meaningful, and also shows the essence behind it.

Onto some other comments I couldn’t insert along the way while writing a summary of the story. Firstly, even though the method of smuggling out is dirty (but brilliant), it’s still quite amazing how an old man who isn’t exactly at the best of his fitness and health, is able to “flush” down 2 tons diamonds down the sink in 1 night, not to mention transporting the diamonds from the vault to the “flushing ground”. The movie also clearly showed that he took several trips in order to empty the entire vault, and amazingly he could actually finish everything. alone. Secondly, I thought Caine’s acting is good, the same way I felt for some of the roles I’ve seen him played in his huge list of filmography. Moore did a good job for herself as well.

Sad to say, but this show does not have action for the excitement. Nor does it have a romance or love story to spice up the screen. Neither does it have comedy and humour to lighten the mood. However, the little trick Hobbs did was, imo, the highlight of the movie. Lots of dialogue involved, so it’s more of a drama-ish type of criminal film, rather than those filled with action scenes and stuff. I can say that this movie will likely bore a lot of people, but I think this movie has its very own merits that some movies could possibly never integrate them well. Anyway, my take: 6/10

p.s. Hmm, seems that I wrote a little too much for this one. Woops.