HOLLYWOOD—Director Steven Soderbergh knows how to craft an amazing movie. Just take a look at his resume “Erin Brockovich,” “Traffic,” “Ocean’s Eleven” and “Magic Mike” to name a few. With that said, his latest thriller “No Sudden Move” has highs and lows. It is not a perfect movie, as this heist thriller takes a moment to get its footing. Once the footing gets moving, then things start to nab your attention.
This cast is amazing and I mean amazing: Don Cheadle, Benicio del Toro, Jon Hamm, Amy Seimetz, Brendan Fraser, Noah Jupe, Ray Liotta and Bill Duke to name a few. There is some sensational acting in this movie notably from Cheadle and Toro who have starring roles people.
The thriller is set in 1950s Detroit (hooray for my home town), where Curt Goynes (Cheadle) is desperate for money, and finds himself in a scheme to threaten a family where the patriarch is Matt Wertz (David Harbour), whose wife is Mary (Seimetz) and their children Matthew Wertz Jr. (Jupe). Jupe is an incredible talent; this kid can act his tail off. Hollywood watch this kid because his talent is incredible.
At the forefront of this threat to the family is Doug Jones (Brandon Fraser), who uses Curt, Ronald Russo (del Toro) and Charley (Kieran Culkin) to threaten Matt and his family to get their holds on an important document inside the safe of his boss’s office. What is inside that safe? That is the mystery and the mystery of that document is to be the thing that draws the audience in, but not KNOWING what that is until like the second act of the flick is a bummer because it totally lost my interest.
There is an unexpected twist in the flick which really kicks the movie in the gear. Someone dies and the movie starts to pick up the pace that pushes the narrative in a great way. This is where “No Sudden Move” starts to really excel because the mystery becomes a mystery and as a viewer you have no idea who to trust, who is aligned with who and who is about to betray who. Liotta steps into the role of mob boss as Frank Capelli, and its not something we haven’t seen from Liotta before. His character puts out the hit on the family and is also behind the hit on Ronald and Curt. Detective Joe Finney (Hamm) is an enigma and his presence is as notable as I expected him to be in the movie.
You have to pay attention to this movie people, because if you take your eye away from the screen you will miss a crucial detail or plot point where you are attempting to connect the dots. You have these people, you have these people and the so called good guys are bad guys, the bad guys are good guys, everyone is looking to get an edge up on the other.
Yes that is the cycle this movie plays with and it is absolutely fun, but it takes a moment for Soderbergh to get to that point in the movie. Can I argue the audience is lost by that time? No, but a movie has to hook you within a specified time frame in most situations otherwise once the audience has checked out there is nothing you can do to bring them back. I will admit there is a cameo from a major A-lister that was not only a surprise, but a ton of fun I mean a ton of fun and a standout moment of the flick.
I did not hate “No Sudden Move,” but I did not love it. It took some time to nab my attention, but once I got hooked I was all in for this heist. The pacing starts slow, but once Soderbergh picks things up this heist is a classic.
