Fairytale for underdogs? thinly veiled socialist propaganda? or just plain incoherent?

Rating: 5/10 (31 December 2009)

This movie is relatively entertaining and provokes a few good laughs. It exhibits the classic structure of the Fairytale for Underdogs, leading the viewer to root along with the losers (Ocean's 11) against the powerful and rich (Andy Garcia's character). We are to hope that this mad-capped caper will succeed so that the eleven losers will no longer be insolvent, and the rich guy will lose big.
The odd thing about this version of the fairytale is that we have no idea why we should detest the King of Three Casinos. Is it because he's a crook (which we don't really know)? Apparently not, since the losers who are taking him on are also crooks. Is it because he stole the ex-con Ocean's wife (played insipidly, as usual, by Julia Roberts)? That seems to be the idea, but we haven't a clue as to why SHE divorced him (and not vice versa), except for the fact that he was in prison for a number of years, and she is clearly angry with him about something. Perhaps, having been left in the lurch, she simply decided to move on... But now we are supposed to side with the loser ex-con upon his release from prison as he endeavors to rob $160 million from her new boyfriend, while winning her back as well.
There seems to be a bit of a socialist undercurrent here, for even if the Andy Garcia character is a crook, he's a successful crook, unlike his adversaries. So it looks as though we are supposed to hate him for being competent and rich! Julia Roberts plays a woman who appears to have been hurt deeply by her ex-husband the ex-con, but is ready to hit the road with him again, upon his successful heist of $160 million from the guy who has provided her with not only companionship during her ex-husband's incarceration, but also a job as the curator of a museum in one of his casinos. (Hmmm... Was it love that attracted her to him?) Honestly, I don't get. At the end of the day, this morally sanctimonious chick appears to click with whoever is rich!
The socialist waters become even more muddled at this point, for now that Ocean's eleven are rich, shouldn't we side with some other cluster of underdogs who should now want to rob them? (It looks as though I'll have to watch the sequels for the answer to that question!) In fact, if we (the moviegoers) were to take the premise of this film seriously, we should all conspire to rob George, Brad, Matt, Julia, et al., of the millions that they each earned for starring in this thing!!!
OCEAN'S ELEVEN was never meant to provoke thought. Just some raucous laughter and the primordial desire to side against anyone who's better off than one's self. Or maybe just the idea that a bunch of losers might be able to pull off an impossible heist despite the fact that they make blunder after blunder, almost blowing it about a dozen times. So, against all odds, fortuna takes their side. Maybe that was it.