'Ocean's Eleven' works because it has a light, swinging feel you're less likely to notice if the story is a little jagged in places because the tone is so even and smooth. Together, they threaten to sneak off with the movie when Soderbergh isn't looking, sowing madness and sex appeal in their wake.īut Soderbergh keeps control by ceding it: He maintains a careful rein on the tightly worked plot - a story about classy rapscallions who set out to rob a trio of casinos - without ever tightening the noose on his actors. Clooney is all controlled class, delivered with a devilish wink Gould throws off energy in reckless, fiery pinwheels, as if he's rigged his performance to blow up the camera instead of make love to it. He carries the picture in his breast pocket: You look for his face when you feel the plot getting a little too busy or too slick.Įlliott Gould, in a much smaller role as an old-style casino owner fallen on semihard times, is Clooney's polar opposite, but he's just as essential to the movie.
George Clooney, as smoothie thief Daniel Ocean, is a movie star in every sense of the word. The north and south of Steven Soderbergh's sharply creased and polished heist movie 'Ocean's Eleven' are represented by two actors - one the star and the other a minor player only in terms of the number of lines he gets.
