Over the years, everyone's favorite silver-screen Scotsman, Sean Connery, has rarely strayed far from his signature James Bond-type action roles. Entrapment proves no exception, and even though Connery is now legally a senior citizen, he is still remarkably credible as an action- figure. In this particular predicament, he plays a master thief, Robert "Mac" McDonald, who's being set up to be captured while on a heist for a rare Chinese mask. His partner in crime is Virginia "Gin" Baker, played by Catherine Zeta-Jones from last year's The Mask of Zorro. Masquerading as a master thief herself, she is purportedly also working for an insurance agency bent on bringing Mac to justice. The tried and true Hollywood premise at work here is it takes a thief to catch a thief. But, of course, twists and turns in the plot provide plenty of who is really entrapping whom.
Not surprisingly, the stunts are the central whizbang focus point of this piece. The film begins with a masked thief using sophisticated technology and Spiderman-like abilities to steal a Rembrandt from an impressive New York city skyscraper. Later developments will take our dynamic duo from London to the Near East for a series of fantastic and breath-taking stunts, including such standards as laser-triggered alarms, secret passages, and other nifty booby traps and contraptions. With all these spectacular human tricks on skyscrapers and castles, the clever plot points and role reversals seem far less important. Although the story remains intact through the plot changes, the path the film takes could be more convincing.
The expected May-September (Or is that February - November?) romance between Connery and Zeta-Jones is startlingly downplayed; he is after all old enough to be her...grandfather. Unlike James Bond, Connery's character tries to avoid "bedding the damsel"--in fact, he initially seems to go out of his way to avoid her flirtatious advances. Both central characters are played charmingly and likeably by the actors, but with little depth. Zeta-Jones is no Glenn Close, but she actually exceeds expectations. Connery has been doing this type of role for so long, he may as well be phoning his performance in--yet he still has presence.
Thrillers of this particular genre are usually inundated with an overabundance of violence, profanity, sex, and nudity. This film gratefully relies less on them, and more on story and character. There are plenty of chase scenes with the police in pursuit and FBI firing shots at the thieves, but there is virtually no gore or blood. A few colorful metaphors pop up so abruptly that they seem quite out of place. The previews in particular suggested plenty of "hotter bits," but other than some innuendo and Zeta-Jones suggestively slinking around the set in tight clothes, the movie is surprisingly light on such unneeded fluff. Unfortunately, the lack of four-letter words, hyper-violence, and pornographic content do not change the fact that in this story the bad guys are the ones we are meant to root for.
We've seen this movie before. If you like this particular genre, Entrapment is an entertaining and moderately well-done addition to the form. Although you won't feel trapped in the theatre watching it, this movie risks little and you may wish it was a better escape.
Steven S. Baldwin 5/19/99
