More glitter than gold

Rating: 6/10 (21 September 2016)

You know this type of people whose broad and most sincere smile only means that they have come up with some tricky scheme to screw you over? Well, George Clooney seems to be that kind of a person. Once you see his smug face, you can definitely be sure that whatever you buy that he's selling is gonna be the truest of fake.
Now add some serious cast, including Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Julia Roberts (still in her prime), a convoluted heist plot, and enough reason to dislike the bad guy - and you'll be literally waiting for our A-Team to succeed and cheering when it does. Yes, it does indeed. Did you really doubt that for a second?
Ocean's Eleven, released in 2001, still belongs to that (hopefully) gone era of Hollywood cinema when easy was fun and style was enough to substitute substance. And damn, how in style this film goes! All shiny and sparkling, with enough fun little twists and moments of humor, with Clooney and Pitt exchanging impeccable smiles and snappy one-liners, with a sleek kingpin of an antagonist and his dumb nitwit minions - and of course with the charm of Las Vegas and its vibe of easy money and endless entertainment - Ocean's Eleven makes you feel like a spectator at a very expensive and exclusive show.
But that era is over, and even the general audience is into trying to dig a film's surface, not necessarily deep but enough to expect a second layer to show itself. And that sort of thing Ocean's Eleven is kinda short of. The big talent is wasted on walking around, looking perfect and sounding confident, while the only character carrying at least some emotional charge is the usual suspect of a good person's ex-wife and a bad person's current love interest. So we can only thank Julia Roberts for being a good actress enough to make those small things count and show a variety of emotions on her face. Because it seems that the rest of the stellar cast only took a single facial expression with them on stage.
It is said that a casino is built like a labyrinth to keep visitors in. Huge, loud and blinking, but still a labyrinth. And so does this film, like a race through a maze, try to keep you thinking of anything but its essence. The truth is, the real essence of this movie is not Mr Clooney's smile or the wads of cash he and his friends try to steal. It's that fir-shaped car air freshener that is shown to us for long enough to suspect some bizarre case of product placement. A screamingly strong-smelling piece of unidentified material that doesn't really make the air enjoyable for breathing but instead is only suitable for distracting you from realizing how stale and stuffy it is. Well, you could of course let yourself be fooled for the whole ride, but it's much healthier not to take it at all in the first place.