While many films featuring criminals as protagonists fall prey to the moral quandary of asking audiences to root for someone that, in real life, no one would dream of cheering on – think Hannibal Lecter, Ripley, Vic Mackey – the Ocean films, like “The Italian Job,” do not. There’s no questioning the sensibilities of filmmakers and audiences who would accept a film that glamorizes and romanticizes criminals; the thieves at the heart of the Ocean movies are more Robin Hood than Al Capone. Danny Ocean (cool George Clooney) and his merry band don’t use guns and don’t engage in violence. It’s strictly brainpower, Mission: Impossible-style, and the good old-fashioned art of running a con. Naturally, the people who find themselves on the receiving end of Ocean’s scheming deserve it. In this latest chapter, it’s Al Pacino as a ruthless and egotistical hotel/casino owner whose crooked business dealings leave Reuben (Gould) – Ocean’s bankroller and friend – deprived of his half of a new high-class hotel with only a heart attack to show for all his efforts.

As in the previous films, the real mark isn’t so much the story’s antagonist, but the audience. The quirky, eminently likeable characters are specifically stripped of malevolence. The plot is tuned to avoid making Pacino so evil that revenge can’t be a funny thing without also being a stretch. But it’s the deus ex machinas in the form of flashbacks or surprise revelations, which reveal information deliberately withheld for the best moment of surprise, that give a clue that the audience is being played ever-so-slightly. Yet it would be churlish to hold this against the film. The characters are, after all, masters of the con. It’s only natural that we get playfully tweaked as well. And given how it all fits into the film’s internal logic, this isn’t audience-manipulation a la “The Departed” (or the TV series “Lost,” for that matter) but something more gentlemanly. In other words, it’s a pleasure to surrender to the film’s considerable charm, to switch off the world for a couple of hours and just enjoy the magic of movies.

Ocean’s 13. Written by Brian Koppelman and David Levine. Directed by Steven Soderbergh. Starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Al Pacino, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Elliott Gould, Ellen Barkin, Bernie Mac and Andy Garcia. 122 minutes. Rated PG-13 for brief sensuality.
For a review of Surf’s Up, which also opens in theatres today, please visit Frédérik’s personal website www.inkandashes.net.