"It's like seeing
someone for the first time. You can be passing on the street and you look at
each other and for a few seconds there's this kind of recognition. Like you
both know something, and the next moment the person's gone. And it's too late to
do anything about it. And you always remember it because it was there and you
let it go. And you think to yourself, what if I stopped? What if I said
something? What if?" – Jack Foley
This bit
of dialogue from Out of Sight (1998)
perfectly captures the essence of the relationships between the characters in
this film. It is about the what ifs and the what could have beens. What the
characters do and, more importantly, what they don't do directly determines
their fate.
As the
film begins, Jack Foley (George Clooney), a career bank robber, escapes from a
Florida prison with the help of his loyal accomplice Buddy (Ving Rhames). In
the heat of the moment they kidnap a beautiful Federal Marshall named Karen
Sisco (Jennifer Lopez). She and Jack are stuffed in the trunk of her car as
they make a hasty retreat. Trapped in such a small, confined space Jack and
Karen have nothing to do but engage in idle chitchat. Even though they are on
completely opposite sides of the law there's a spark, an initial attraction that
blossoms into something more as the film progresses and their paths inevitably
cross again.

Out of Sight is based on the book of the same name
by Elmore Leonard. He had wanted to do a bank robber story for a long time.
Several years ago, he saw “a picture in the Detroit News of an attractive young
woman who was a Federal Marshal standing in front of the Federal Courthouse in
Miami. She held a shotgun which was resting on her cocked hip and as soon as I
saw that picture, I knew it was a book.” Danny DeVito bought the rights to a
previous Leonard book, Get Shorty,
for his production company, Jersey Films. After the success of that film, he
bought the rights to Out of Sight.
Screenwriter
Scott Frank had a tough time adapting Leonard’s Get Shorty and didn’t want to do it again. However, he found
himself in a situation where he needed the money. He liked Out of Sight and thought it would be easier to adapt but it turned
out to be even more difficult than Get
Shorty! For example, Frank found that Leonard told “his stories purely
through the dialogue, whereas in a movie the old adage is ‘show, don’t tell.’
It’s the opposite and so it’s very, very tricky to convert that into a movie.”
The film
came to George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh at a time when both of their
careers had reached a critical junction. Clooney was coming off the commercial
and critical train wreck known as Batman
and Robin (1997). Soderbergh had completely shunned the mainstream with the
one-two punch of Gray’s Anatomy
(1996) and Schizopolis (1996). Both
men were looking for a hit that would put them back on the map. Soderbergh had
already made two films for Universal and one of its executives, Casey Silver,
offered him Out of Sight with Clooney
attached after original director Barry Sonnenfeld dropped out. Soderbergh was
close to making another project and was going to pass but Silver told him,
“These things aren’t going to line up very often, you should pay attention.” By
the filmmaker’s own admission, he “had to go chase this. I had to audition for
it. I had to talk to Jersey Films, I had to talk to Clooney…I had to go in and
say I really feel like I know how to do this.”

Soderbergh
and Frank achieve a perfect mix with Out
of Sight. The film’s pace moves with effortless ease and self-confidence.
The know when to slow things down and savor the moment as well. As Frank proved
with his excellent screenplay for Get
Shorty (1995), he perfectly understands Leonard's distinctive cadence and
the speech patterns of his characters. Cinematic adaptations of books are
almost always inferior because so much has to be cut out or changed to fit into
a two-hour film. However, Leonard's books are tailor-made for movie adaptations
because they are very visual and almost entirely dialogue and character-driven
— ideal for the screenplay format. Out of
Sight is one of those rare movies that is actually better than the book.
Soderbergh
and his cameraman, Elliot Davis, paint their film with a specific color code.
The bright colors of the Florida scenes — especially the prison sequences with
vibrant blue and the bright yellow prison uniforms worn by various characters —
provide a nice contrast to the second half of the film which consists mainly of
a gun-metal blue color scheme. The Detroit scenes have a cold, metallic feel to
them and this really comes out.
After a
string of so-so films, George Clooney finally hit paydirt with Out of Sight. With his movie star good
looks and suave charm, he is perfectly cast as the smooth talking criminal.
This may be his finest performance to date. For Clooney what attracted him to
this role was the chance to play a character that evoked his cinematic heroes of
the past. “When I was growing up the heroes for me were the bankrobbers — you
know, the Cagneys and the Bogarts, Steve McQueen and all those guys, the guys
who were kind of bad and you still rooted for them. And when I read this, I
thought, This guy is robbing a bank but you really want him to get away with
it.” Clooney’s style of acting is perfect for this role as he plays Foley with
the right amount of laid-back charm. This is typified by his character's
introduction — the most pleasant, non-violent bank robbery ever committed to
film. Clooney has such a likable screen presence that you want to see his
character succeed.

Conversely,
Jennifer Lopez is his perfect foil as a smart, tough law enforcement officer
who can't help but fall in love with this charismatic criminal. She is a very
attractive woman but not above wielding a shotgun to apprehend a fugitive.
There is a genuine chemistry between the two actors that makes their romance
work. And it is this relationship that gives Out of Sight its depth. There is more to this movie than snappy
banter and a hip soundtrack. Incredibly, Sandra Bullock was originally
considered to play Karen Sisco opposite Clooney, however Soderbergh said, “What
happened was I spent some time with [Clooney and Bullock] - and they actually
did have a great chemistry. But it was for the wrong movie. They really should
do a movie together, but it was not Elmore Leonard energy.”
A killer
cast supports the two lead actors. Steve Zahn, an underrated character actor,
is perfect as Glen, a stoner screw-up who looks up to Jack but is a royal pain
in the ass. Dennis Farina plays Karen's laid-back dad who buys his daughter a
handgun for her birthday and just wants to see her married to a lawyer or a
doctor. Albert Brooks is Richard Ripley, a bumbling white-collar criminal type
who is in way over his head and sports a truly awful toupee. Don Cheadle plays
“Snoopy” Miller, a tough guy-wannabe that is a classic schoolyard bully.
Rounding this cast out is Ving Rhames, Jack's tough, God-fearing partner in
crime.
David
Holmes' catchy R&B score comes in and instantly transports the viewer into
this world. He mixes in his own brand of funky electronica with old school
tunes from the likes of the Isley brothers and Willie Bobo. From the atmospheric
noises in the background to Holmes' superb trip hop beats, this is a great
sounding movie.
Despite
its lackluster performance at the box office, Out of Sight received widespread critical praise. It was clearly a
career turning point for both George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh. Clooney
said in an interview that “Out of Sight
was the first time where I had a say, and it was the first good screenplay that
I’d read where I just went, ‘That’s it.’ And even though it didn’t do really
well box office-wise — we sort of tanked again — it was a really good film.”
Clooney went on to success with O Brother,
Where Art Thou? (2000) and Ocean’s
Eleven (2001). Soderbergh saw Out of
Sight as “a very conscious decision on my part to try and climb my way out
of the arthouse ghetto which can be as much of a trap as making blockbuster
films. And I was very aware that at that point in my career, half the business
was off limits to me.” The film’s critical reaction gave Soderbergh a foothold
in Hollywood that led to the commercial success of Erin Brockovich (1999) and Oscar gold with Traffic (2000).

Out of Sight is a film about making choices and
taking chances despite the sometimes inevitable, painful consequences. It is
also an entertaining look at a collection of colorful characters and the
exciting world they inhabit. This is a smart, sexy and wonderfully stylish
crime thriller that was ignored by audiences (due to lousy advertising and an
even worse release date) but garnered strong critical reaction (winding up on
many Best Of lists that year). Fortunately, Out
of Sight has been re-discovered on video and recognized as one of the best
Elmore Leonard adaptations ever put to film.
SOURCES
Andrew,
Geoff. "Again, with 20% more existential grief." The Guardian.
February 13, 2003.
Bautz,
Mark. "Sight and Sound." Entertainment Weekly. June 25, 1998.
Croatto,
Pete. “Bringing Elmore Leonard Into Sight.” Creative Screenwriting. July
2013.
Decha,
Max. "America's Most Wanted." Neon. December 1998.
Jones,
Belinda. "Rockumentaries..." Empire. January 1999.
Malcolm,
Paul. “Back in Sight.” L.A. Weekly. July 1, 1998.
"Steven
Soderbergh Interview." Mr. Showbiz. 1998.