Cheeky to call a film that. Especially a Demi Moore film. In it, she carries that affixed chip on her shoulder into the role of the sole female executive at the London Diamond Corporation (Lon Di, for short) in the year 1960, held down in her career advancement by the proverbial glass ceiling. “Don’t give up,” she dashes off a note-to-self on a 3x5 index card. “Work harder. You will win.” Though she is expressly identified as American to cover for the faintness of her accent, that doesn’t prevent her from pronouncing “reschedule” without the “k” sound (“re-shedule”), turning herself inside out to fit in. Bravely, even a touch martyrishly, she puts on, and puts up with, a coiffure and wardrobe out of the Jackie Kennedy scrapbook — and because it’s stuffy old England, exclusively in colors suitable for a funeral — not to mention putting on and putting up with a layer of old-age makeup in the present-day framing scenes, when she pulls out a manuscript of her life story under a title lifted from Kate Chopin, minus the definite article, Awakening. Helping to sound reveille is the company’s night janitor (Michael Caine, so peculiarly cast, you keep expecting him to be unmasked as a secret agent), who sees all and knows all without being seen or known, and who pitches to her a retributive raid on the vault in the basement. Beyond a trip to the dog track (his pleasure), neither of the co-conspirators has a life, and the suffocating narrowness of the film will not be offset by its broader awareness of feminist issues or its last-minute epiphany on healthcare. Michael Radford, the serious-minded director of 1984, Il Postino, Dancing at the Blue Iguana, among others, goes through the paces of the heist with precision, but without urgency, without tension, without excitement, without, even, clarity. In a caper film, that could be thought a sizable flaw. Social consciousness is small compensation. (2008) — Duncan Shepherd
This movie is not currently in theaters.