Oceans 12 is bad, but when you understand why you can start to appreciate its merits
Oceans 12 has long been considered the absolute worst of the Oceans movies and with the new Oceans 8 consisting of an all women’s cast coming together I wanted to take a moment to analyze Oceans 12. Why does this movie fail? When we understand something we can begin to forgive it and after forgiveness comes love. I love Oceans 12 and I didn’t quite understand why until recently. Let me try and explain.
Oceans 12 is at heart an anthology of short films that Steven Soderbergh tries to weave into a coherent story. Its a riff on Oceans 11, which was a riff on the original Oceans 11.
The structure of most stories both on the screen and on the page are beholden to either progressing a plot or progressing characters. On rare occasions we get a story that can progress both plot and characters, but usually stories about characters will win a Pulitzer while stories that serve the plot get turned into TV shows and movies.
Oceans 12 is not about plot and it’s not about characters and it alienates most people. There is no heroes journey here. Oceans 12 about style, mis-en-scene, camera angles, color, feeling, vibe, and giving the viewer an unobstructed view into the fictional world of ironic and stylish thievery. Oceans 12 does attempt to have a theme and it’s the same as Oceans 11 — love conquers all. This theme is kicked off at the start of the movie with Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
This scene introduces us to Izzy and Rusty. We know Rusty (Pitt) from Oceans 11, but its a younger Rusty who is in love. Izzy (Zeta-Jones) knows she is dating the thief who she is trying to catch. It’s why she leads off with telling Rusty everything she knows. She is testing to see if he actually loves her. If he loves her he tells her the truth. If he doesn’t really love her he runs. Guy’s aren’t that smart and Rusty does what any thief does — he runs.The rest of Oceans 12 is driven around this event where Rusty fucked up. This event that he regrets to his core. It helps drive the movie through it’s ridiculous plot and it helps give resolution at the end.
The rest of the scenes don’t exactly line up. They are disjointed. Most scenes do not serve plot development or even that much character development. They are glimpses into how this stylish underworld works. They stand alone better on YouTube as clips as opposed to being woven into a narrative. This is exemplified via the Lost in Translation scene.
The lost in translation scene is a short film about a practical joke. It doesn’t really serve any purpose other than to make the ever earnest Linus look like an idiot. We have all been Linus at some point.
Another great short film in the movie is the biograpy of the legendary Night Fox played by Vincent Cassell. The Night Fox is the antithesis to the Oceans crew in that he seems to have no flaws, no quirks, too much fashion, and he is too self assured. It also makes every guy watching the movie subconsciously want to start doing calisthenics, reading about art, wearing shoes without socks, and making smoothies.
The following short film/scene gives the audience and introduction of how to introduce oneself at a cafe in Rome and proceed to have an amazing day. Also Steven Soderberg shoots this like an old school Italian film. Pay attention to the lilting mandolin based melody, washed out colors, the lighting, and the overall vibe. This is style first and story second.
That scene with Rusty and Izzy feels like a tourism commercial for Rome. I want to go already. The next scene is the scene throws the plot of the whole movie under the bus. The plot twist that breaks the story’s back. This short film is just a heist on a train. It can stand alone. The train has left the tracks and is flying over the water. This is how Daniel Ocean and his crew defeat the narcissistic Night Fox and it makes no sense as to how they got there. Best to just roll with it.
How do Danny and Rusty even figure out where Gaspar Lemark is hiding out? Why would Gaspar help them? This is some implausible stuff. It’s a significant departure from the semi-believable of the Oceans 11 remake. The viewer can either hate it or embrace it. I choose to embrace the ridiculous of this movie and its better after accepting that its ridiculous.
As we get to the end of the movie the following scene just breaks so many rules of physics and story. It’s completely implausible. It’s unbelievable. It’s also one of the coolest scenes of the whole movie and its got a dope song to go with it.
I guess my point here is that this movie is not about the big fight scene in the end. This movie is not about the plot twist where Julia Roberts makes a cameo as a real character, but ends up playing herself — Julia Roberts. This movie is not about giving us a coherent plot.
Oceans 12 is a movie that seeks to take us on a fun ride that feels cool. It brings us into an ironic world full of unexplained inside jokes. A world where everyone understands Mandarin and the Chinese guy understands English, but can only speak Mandarin. Oceans 12 is less about stealing stuff than it is about how one goes about stealing stuff. The process is more important than the end goal. The way you treat others in your field is just as important as being really good at your job.
The movie gives us a wild grandiose world full of nuance, riffs on classics, and quiet moments that are full of quiet humor and sadness. At it’s best this movie makes me think twice about what I put on in the morning and what I should be reading at night. Would Rusty read the article about the new iPhone or would he read about how art forgery is done?
Our choices determine who we are. I would rather be a little more implausible, memorable, and daring in my own life. I hope you the reader do as well. I’ll leave you with the last scene of the movie. Playing poker.
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