Entrapment
USA/Germany 1999
Reviewed by Jos Arroyo
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Sixteen days before the millennium. A thief slithers into a Manhattan high-rise building and steals a Rembrandt. Virginia 'Gin' Baker, an insurance investigator, notes that the theft has all the hallmarks of a job by Robert 'Mac' MacDougal, the world's greatest thief. She persuades her boss to let her entrap him. Gin contacts Mac with her bait: a proposal to steal a Chinese mask worth $40 million. To test her, Mac asks her to steal a vase from an antique store. She passes and he whisks her off to his castle in Scotland where she is trained to avoid the laser security system protecting the mask.
Gin does her best to seduce Mac, but romantic involvement with a partner-in-theft goes against his professional code of conduct. Also, his mistrust of her is borne out when he taps her phone calls and learns of her intent to double-cross him. After the theft of the mask, Mac decides to drown her but she persuades him to let her live by suggesting an even larger theft of $8 billion. The sum could be siphoned off various bank accounts from the head office of a multinational in Kuala Lumpur during the several-seconds-long computer shutdowns for midnight, 1999. During the operation Gin and Mac are separated but meet later at a station where Mac reveals he's been double-crossing her all along. He allows her to escape but they reunite for a final clinch
Review
Entrapment luxuriates in the best Hollywood big bucks can buy: superb sets and cinematography, spectacular locations, expensive stars. During the opening credits the camera glides through a romanticised Manhattan skyline. The steel and chrome gleam, the lights of the skyscrapers are digital jewels and the frame of the screen is dynamically pierced at odd angles by a laser-like red beam. This sequence holds out a tantalising promise for the movie, particularly when the camera rests on a sinuous cat-burglar entering a high, tightly shut window with elegant ease. We expect an exciting, sleek and slick caper movie, something like To Catch a Thief (1954) or at least (let's not be too greedy) Arabesque (1966). It's not the stars' fault that Entrapment is disappointing. Sean Connery gets the Cary Grant treatment here, made the object of his co-star's desire. Catherine Zeta-Jones chases him just as surely and shrewdly as Audrey Hepburn chased Grant in Charade (1963). Given the 40-year age gap between them, her instigation is presumably meant to make their romance less risible, but it's an unnecessary precaution. Close-ups reveal Connery's skin is losing the battle with time, but his appeal was never really based on youth.
Connery's stardom rests on his ability to represent a man completely at ease with his masculinity and his sexuality better than any other star of his generation. There was always something a bit suspect about prettier men like Paul Newman (cf. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, 1958) while tougher guys such as Clint Eastwood seemed too stiff to be turned on by anything but seaminess (Tightrope, 1984). Connery, however, deploys his physical size, gruff and commanding voice, a glance both sure and sly and a stillness that can pounce into graceful movement at any moment to project a sexuality so confident it can afford to be nonchalant and playful. We are easily convinced that what Zeta-Jones wants from him, give or take a couple of billion dollars, is delivery on the promise of a rough good time.
Zeta-Jones more than holds her own here. Connery may be the object of her desire, but Zeta-Jones is meant to be the object of ours. The sight of her leotard-clad figure practising gymnastics in order to avoid the burglar alarm's lasers is more spectacular and pleasurable than the action set pieces. She emerges from Entrapment a full-blown star, flirting with such intelligent sultriness not even a man of Connery's strength can resist. Good alone but even better together, the two have an undoubted chemistry.
Entrapment aspires to be nothing more than a bit of glamorous nonsense, but although it has done all right by the glamour, it has perhaps done too well by the nonsense. Very badly structured, the story begins to feel ripped off half way through, its maze of double-crossings never delivering a narrative payoff. At the unbelievable and tacked-on ending, even a cynic might feel a twinge of discomfort at the lack of even a half-hearted gesture towards a moral rationale for the action. We're meant to root for these thieves just because they look gorgeous, seem meant for each other and are good at their work.
The fact that the combination of sex and capital as spectacle is thought to need no other rationale says a lot about millennial culture, and would make a good subject for another movie. But this is by-numbers genre work which has forgotten a few sums. Entrapment fails as a caper film because it neglects that fundamental ingredient - a credible plot, evidently something even the biggest chequebooks in Hollywood can no longer guarantee.
Credits
- Producers
- Sean Connery
- Michael Hertzberg
- Rhonda Tollefson
- Screenplay
- Ron Bass
- William Broyles
- Story
- Ron Bass
- Michael Hertzberg
- Director of Photography
- Phil Meheux
- Editor
- Terry Rawlings
- Production Designer
- Norman Garwood
- Music
- Christopher Young
- ©Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation/ Monarchy Enterprises B.V. and Regency Entertainment (USA), Inc
- Production Companies
- Twentieth Century Fox and Regency Enterprises present a Fountainbridge Films and a Michael Hertzberg production in association with Taurus Film
- Executive Producers
- Iain Smith
- Ron Bass
- Arnon Milchan
- Production Supervisors
- Sarah Bradshaw
- Malaysian Unit:
- Al Burgess
- Production Co-ordinators
- Elaine Burt
- New York Unit:
- Shelley Houis
- Production Services in Malaysia
- Dynasara Sdn. Bhd.
- Production Manager
- Malaysian Unit:
- Faye Ong
- Unit Production Managers
- Sarah Bradshaw
- New York Unit:
- John Starke
- Unit Managers
- 2nd Unit:
- Rachel Neale
- Judy Britten
- Malaysian Unit:
- Amy Segal
- Location Managers
- Christian McWilliams
- Richard Sharkey
- Simon Marsden
- Scottish Unit:
- Michael Sharp
- Malaysian Unit Senior:
- Magen Appathurai
- Malaysian Unit:
- Bernard Kong
- Ramesh Appathurai
- New York Unit:
- Darren Wiseman
- 2nd Unit Director
- Vic Armstrong
- Assistant Directors
- Chris Carreras
- Michael Stevenson
- Robert P. Grayson
- Fiona Richards
- 2nd Unit:
- Terry Madden
- Richard Styles
- Carlos Fidel
- Malaysian Unit:
- Mahathir Tahir
- Tze Swen-Hoh
- New York Unit:
- Vebe Borge
- Amy Lynn
- Dylan Hopkins
- Script Supervisors
- Lisa Vick
- 2nd Unit:
- Sarah Hinch
Casting- Michelle Guish
- Donna Isaacson
- New York:
- Kim Miscia
- Additional:
- Lucinda Syson
- Voice:
- Louis Elman
- Malaysian Unit Co-ordinator:
- Christina Thomas
- 2nd Unit Director of Photography
- Jonathan P.B. Taylor
- Additional Cinematography
- 2nd Unit:
- Tony Spratling
- Scottish Unit:
- Martin Singleton
- Cameraman
- Underwater Unit:
- Mike Valentine
- Camera Operators
- Roger Pearce
- 2nd Unit:
- Peter Field
- New York Unit:
- Gabor Kover
- Stephen Consentino
- Wescam Operator
- New York Unit:
- David Norris
- Steadicam Operator
- Alf Tramontin
- Computer and Graphic Design
- Useful Companies
- Computer/Video Effects Supervisor:
- Justin Owen
- Creative Supervisor:
- Simon Staines
- Animation Supervisor:
- Mike Williams
- Graphics Animator:
- Neil Wilson
- Project Manager:
- Stuart Bailey
- Computer/Video Co-ordinator:
- Sara-Jane Valentine
- Computer/Video Technicians:
- Stefan Cebula
- Chris McBride
- Visual Effects
- Supervisor:
- Nick Davis
- Co-ordinator:
- Alexandra Day
- Digital Visual Effects
- Cinesite Digital Studios
- Digital Effects Supervisor:
- Alex Bicknell
- Digital Effects Co-ordinator:
- Carole Cowley
- Head of Production:
- Courtney Vanderslice-Law
- Executive Producer:
- Colin Brown
- Bidding Producer:
- Gill Roberts
- Lead Compositors:
- John Lockwood
- Niki Wakefield
- Mark Michaels
- Digital Compositors:
- Paul Conway
- David Man
- Charlie Tait
- Dave Williams
- Colin Alway
- Lisa Moore
- 3D Computer Animation:
- Charles Cash
- Chris George
- Graham Hopkins
- Jonathan Neill
- Digital Scanning/Recording:
- Peter Williams
- David Fernandes
- Stuart Pearson
- Miniature Construction and Photography
- The Magic Camera Company
- Model Unit Supervisor:
- José Granell
- Producers:
- Antony Hunt
- Roger Lofting
- Production Manager:
- Tim Field
- 1st Assistant Director:
- Dave Pearson
- Production Co-ordinator:
- Barrie Hemsley
- Director of Photography:
- Nigel Stone
- Motion Control Operator:
- Rick Mietkowski
- Special Effects Supervisor:
- Ian Biggs
- Senior Special Effects Technicians:
- Nik Cooper
- Dave Poole
- Ken Gittens
- Model Supervisor:
- Robbie Scott
- Special Effects
- Supervisor:
- Neil Corbould
- Workshop Supervisor:
- Trevor Wood
- Floor Supervisor:
- Clive Beard
- Buyer:
- Krissi Williamson
- Co-ordinator:
- Carol McAulay
- Senior Technicians:
- Jonathan Angell
- David Brighton
- Steve Cullane
- Paul Dunn
- Rodney Fuller
- Kevin Herd
- David Hunter
- Raymond Lovell
- Paul Stephenson
- Timothy Stracey
- Peter White
- Electronics Technicians:
- John Pilgrim
- Alan Young
- Technicians:
- Michael Durkan
- Raymond Ferguson
- Dave Miller
- Kevin Rogan
- Paul Taylor
- Anne Marie Walters
- Steven Warner
- Sculptor/ Modeller:
- Roland Stevenson
- Wire Effects
- Supervisor:
- Stephen Crawley
- Technician:
- Kevin Mathews
- Modellers:
- Sander Ellers
- Andy Simm
- 2nd Unit Special Effects
- Floor Supervisor:
- Paul Corbould
- Senior Technician:
- Ian Corbould
- Technicians:
- Simon Cockren
- David Watkins
- NY Unit Special Effects
- Co-ordinator:
- Al Griswold
- Technicians:
- Wayne Miller
- Bart Traynor
- William J. Bishop
- James J. Quinn
- Graphic Design Artist
- Carol Kupisz
- Special Effects Editor
- Tim Grover
- Supervising Art Director
- Jim Morahan
- Art Directors
- Keith Pain
- Michael Boone
- Set Decorator
- Anna Pinnock
- Portrait Artist
- James Gemmill
- Draftspersons
- Patricia Johnson
- Stephen Morahan
- Pippa Rawlinson
- Anthony Rimmington
- Conceptual Artists
- Adam Brockbank
- Julian Caldow
- Scenic Artists
- Stuart Clarke
- Steve Mitchell
- Storyboard Artists
- Martin Asbury
- Temple Clark
- Sculptor/Modellers
- John Blakeley
- Roger Walker
- Sculptor
- Bryn Court
- Modeller
- Dominic Weisz
- Researcher
- Fergus Clegg
- Costume Designer
- Penny Rose
- Wardrobe
- Supervisor:
- Kenny Crouch
- Mistresses:
- Jane Lewis
- Annie Hadley
- Master:
- Mark Holmes
- Make-up Artists
- Chief:
- Frances Hannon
- 2nd Unit:
- Rebecca Lafford
- Belinda Hodson
- Hairdressers
- Chief:
- Colin Jamison
- 2nd Unit, Chief:
- Hilary Haines
- Titles Designed
- Kemistry
- Titles/Opticals
- G.S.E. Ltd
- Score Performed by
- The Philharmonia Orchestra
- Leader
- Christopher Warren-Green
- Conductor
- Pete Anthony
- Orchestrations
- Pete Anthony
- Jon Kull
- Bruce Babcock
- Music Editors
- Andrew Glen
- Temp:
- Tanya Hill
- Rich Harrison
- Synthesizer Programming
- Kenneth Burgomaster
- Arthur Schaer
- Score Engineer/Mixer
- Geoff Foster
- Music Consultant
- Bob Last
- Soundtrack
- "Lost My Faith" by Seal, Reggie Hamilton, performed by Seal; "Shrine of Llasa", "Shrine of Sringar" by Mudd, Gita, Dubulah, Trapp, performed by Loop Guru; "I Want to Be Happy" by Irving Caesar, Vincent Youmans, performed by Ted Heath and His Music; "Hour of Need" by Jamie Catto, Rollo, Sister Bliss, performed by Faithless; "Lies" by Karen Ramirez, S. Della Monica, G. Canu, A. Sommella, performed by Karen Ramirez; "The Right Way" by D. Kedros, C. Kedros, S. Jewitt, performed by Headrillaz; "Giro", "Sempahka"
- Choreography
- Paul Harris
- Sound Mixers
- David John
- 2nd Unit:
- Ian Munro
- Re-recording Mixer
- John Hayward
- Supervising Sound Editor
- Jim Shields
- Dialogue Editor
- William Parnell
- ADR
- Editor:
- Christopher Ackland
- Foley
- Editor:
- Bob Risk
- Police Adviser
- Les Maddison
- Stunt Co-ordinators
- Vic Armstrong
- Jim Dowdall
- Armourers
- Charlie Bodycomb
- Richard Hooper
- Helicopter Pilots
- 2nd Unit:
- Marc Wolff
- David Arkle
- Scottish Unit:
- Tom Kidd
- New York Unit:
- Al Cerullo
- Cast
- Sean Connery
- Robert 'Mac' MacDougal
- Catherine Zeta-Jones
- Virginia 'Gin' Baker
- Ving Rhames
- Thibadeaux
- Will Patton
- Hector Cruz
- Maury Chaykin
- Conrad Greene
- Kevin McNally
- Haas
- Terry O'Neill
- Quinn
- Madhav Sharma
- security chief
David Yip- chief of police
- Tim Potter
- Millennium man
- Eric Meyers
- Waverly technician
- Aaron Swartz
- Cruz's man
- William Marsh
- computer technician
- Tony Xu
- banker
- Rolf Saxon
- ICB director
- Tom Clarke-Hill
- ICB operator
- David Howard
- ICB technician
- Stuart Ong
- doctor
- Ravin Ganatra
- Rhydian Jai-Persad
- Hari Dhillon
- security guards
- Certificate
- tbc
- Distributor
- 20th Century Fox (UK)
- tbc feet
- tbc minutes
- Dolby
- Colour by
- DeLuxe
- Anamorphic [Panavision]