Day Eighteen: Entrapment

ENTRAPMENT

Starring:
-Sean Connery
-Catherine Zeta Jones

Directed by: Jon Amiel

Screenplay Credits: Ron Bass & William Broyles

MPAA Rating: PG-13


Gin Baker (CZJ) is an investigator at Waverly Insurance. She has a bit of a fixation on Robert “Mac” MacDougal, a sixty year-old thief with immaculately groomed facial hair. She suspects Mac of stealing a priceless Rembrandt from an office and decides to go after him. She starts tailing him, only to return to her hotel room and find all of her clothes missing. Later that night she hears a strange noise in the room and looks up to find Mac lurking in the darkness. Any other man would be ogling her lecherously, but not Sean Connery. He’s too cool for that.

“Rule number two: Never trust a naked woman.” - Mac

This is very sound advice.

Gin has Mac think she’s a thief who’s interested in stealing this fancy Chinese mask. First Mac wants her to steal a vase from a smarmy art dealer. She tries, but botches the exchange and the pair ends up getting shot at as they hurry off. Luckily, she managed to make off with what was concealed inside the vase, a little black thing that looks like an ordinary film canister. This, we learn, contains the complete plans for the Bedford Palace security system. Bedford Palace is the known location of the target, that weird Chinese mask he’s so hot for.

Mac reveals that he can easily blackmail Gin at any point, so she better tow the line. They board a chopper to a remote Scottish castle – Mac’s beautiful home. Mac shows Gin to her room and lays down the law: in order to have complete trust between thieves, there can be nothing personal. Something tells me that this is one of those rules that was made to be broken.

The next morning they start going over the plans and Gin tells Mac that she was the one who stole the Rembrandt, and demonstrates her flexibility by climbing all over the walls and ceiling like a spider monkey. She boasts about her brilliant plan to steal the Rembrandt and sneak it into the mailroom where it would be mailed to the buyer. Mac gets the last laugh by returning to the room with the Rembrandt she stole. He had taken it from the mailroom. You barely notice Mac returning to the room with the painting because you're busy staring at Gin's rear end. Admit it.

Ving Rhames arrives at the castle with all of the supplies Mac will need to pull off the job. Gin has been swimming in the ocean for two hours, yet she emerges with perfect hair and makeup. Okay. Yeah.

Mac creates obstacle courses for her and they train together. Mac sniffs her hair. Uh oh. He blindfolds her and watches her slink through the laser course like a cat. She breaths deeply, he watches her. You get the idea.

Mac gives her a fancy dress. She says she’d like to get him something and heads toward town. Once she gets to a phone booth she stops and makes a call to her boss at the insurance place. Little does she know, Mac has the island bugged and hears every word she says. When Gin returns to the castle she finds a note from Mac that simply says, “UPSTAIRS.” She meets him there and he says ominous things. Finally he tells her they’ll be leaving in two hours for the Mask Ball at the Bedford Palace.

They get dressed and ready and I’ve never seen anybody who can fill a tux better than Sean Connery. Have mercy.

While at the ball they work the room, plant a few special spy devices here and there, and Mac synchronizes his watch with the grand clock.

The thieves break into the secret underwater entrance and up through the showroom floor with a series of perfectly time blasts. Gin hops up and starts maneuvering her way through the series of lasers beams. She makes it to the mask and switches it with one of a monkey. The two of them go back the way they came and she hands off the mask. They play truth or dare. I’ve never played it with the possibility of drowning the loser, but they do things a little differently in Scotland. Gin convinces Mac that her job at the insurance firm is just a cover and that the job she needs help with is even bigger than she originally promised it would be.

Mac heads off with her to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where she plans to lift $8 billion from the International Clearance Bank in Petronas Towers. The theft has to take place in the final seconds of the Millennium countdown; this will be there only chance.

“It’s impossible…but doable.” - Mac

Mac goes on a tour to investigate the towers and takes pictures of their connecting bridge, which is currently being covered in Christmas lights. His feelings have grown for Gin, but this doesn’t stop him from swiping the Chinese mask and giving it to Ving Rhames, so she beats him with a chair.

He drags her to the floor and they struggle a little while until he finally grabs her hands and holds her still. At this moment, I was forced to pause the DVD and step away from the television for a few moments. Whew.

When I managed to cool down enough to return to the movie, Mac and Gin finally smooch a little.

“I hate alone. Alone sucks.” - Gin

He stops things in their tracks and they cuddle some, which is disappointing for me, as I have really been enjoying living vicariously through their little flirtation thing.

Gin gets pulled off the street by the insurance boss Hector and his goons. Ving has been spying on Gin and Mac and feeding information to Hector, so naturally he’s become suspicious.

I don’t want to spoil everything for you, but I will say thank goodness for festive Christmas lights, parachutes, and train stations.

This is a very cool movie. Like any good caper, you’re never totally sure what’s truth and what’s bull, but the crooks get away in the end, which is what everybody wants. There’s tons of neat gadgetry and cool thief moves and it really makes you want to do something covert and mysterious that you’re bound to feel guilty about later.

Fun fact: Sean Connery is 79 years old. And bald. And there isn’t a woman in the world who cares about either of those things.

Also, I love the way Connery says, “girrrrrlfriend.”

I reserve the grade of A+ for those films that leave me with a certain happy, buzzy feeling. It’s that feeling where there are no unanswered questions and everything has worked out perfectly, though maybe not in the way you expected. Not only does this movie have all of those characteristics, it leaves you wanting to see more of Mac and Gin’s adventures, which is something I wish more screenwriters would strive for. Happy endings are good, but after a movie like this, everybody wants part two of the story.

FINAL GRADE: A+