his and “The Limey” are Stephen Soderbergh’s best pure pictures. Here, he takes career thief Jack Foley (George Clooney) and crafts a shifty, believable world around him. The Elmore Leonard plot is a perfect vehicle for Clooney and Jennifer Lopez (she’s U.S. Marshall Karen Sisco, and delicately underplays her turn).
Soderbergh cross-cuts like a runner in the open field, patching together Foley’s breakout and Sisco’s chase while turning up the heat between them. Ving Rhames, Catherine Keener, Dennis Farina, and Don Cheadle all help out. For Leonard fans, this is easily in the same league as “Get Shorty.” It’s sad to see Soderbergh toil with “Ocean’s” series when he’s capable of this.
