Trapped With Her? Sign Me Up

I sat in the darkened room for just under two hours, and every minute of those two hours, one singular thought ran ceaselessly through my head:

He's old enough to be her grandfather.

He's old enough to be her grandfather.

He's old enough to be her grandfather.

Sorry, I'm narrow-minded like that.

The latest in a growing trend of age-skewed Hollywood hook-ups, Entrapment follows an intricate game of cat and mouse played out by Robert MacDougal (Sean Connery), a master thief, and Virginia Baker (Catherine Zeta-Jones), an insurance investigator who's looking to beat MacDougal at his own game. It's in the mold of a twisty-turny, psychological spy thriller, complete with deceit, intrigue, romance, and double-crossing.

Romance?!

But he's old enough to be her grandfather!

Entrapment isn't the only film in recent years to pair up an elder Hollywood statesman with a blooming industry "It" girl. Michael Douglas and Gwyneth Paltrow epitomized the generation gap in A Perfect Murder, and we saw the pattern again in Six Days, Seven Nights, starring Harrison Ford and Anne Heche. And let's not forget the shameful age difference from The Horse Whisperer.

Don't get me wrong, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that at all. In fact, we guys are ecstatic with the notion that sex appeal actually improves with age. That is, if this were the real world and not the world of cinematic fantasy. Nevertheless, women do seem to find the likes of Connery and Ford attractive (I guess the fame and wealth thing doesn't seem to hurt, either).

Enough of this age thing. What about the movie itself? Underneath the overpowering glare of the film's marquee stars lies a movie that's halfway decent, for what it is. For a spy thriller that's meant to keep you guessing until the last minute, it succeeds without the presence of an actual story. Though the plot is thin, the directing is striking, and the stars make up for the lack of substance. Admittedly, the film itself seems to be an excuse to showcase the talents of two of Hollywood's hottest players.

You can't go wrong with 007. Sean Connery, one of the industry's most respected actors, has proven that he owns the action-thriller genre with his roles in the James Bond films, as well as more recent films like The Hunt for Red October and The Rock. His mere presence does wonders, instantly enhancing the quality and appeal of the film. His youthful co-star, Catherine Zeta-Jones, lacks the experience of her leading man but more than compensates with her radiant beauty and tantalizingly seductive demeanor. In taking a role that is undeniably more complicated than her character in The Mask of Zorro, she puts her versatility as an actress on display, firmly establishing herself as a star in the business. The chemistry between the two helps give the fragmented plot shape and unity, effectively saving the film from joining the legions of failed action-thrillers.

The complexity of Jones's character is perpetuated by the fact that the audience is never sure of her intentions. As the insurance investigator on the trail of MacDougal, she comes across as an ambitious agent in pursuit of justice. As the story progresses, though, the authenticity of this image becomes questionable. At various times, she claims that she is a thief, just like MacDougal; yet she continues to report to her boss, indicating that she is merely using her thief story to trap MacDougal. To illustrate this uncertainty, the opening scene of the movie features a heist in which a masked thief steals a Rembrandt painting. The audience assumes that the thief is MacDougal, but later on, Baker claims that it was her.

Is Baker a thief or a cop? Is she using both identities in order to further her own ends? Which side is she really on? This mystery, which provides the film's solitary thread of mental stimulation, isn't solved until the very end. The rest of the movie is, regrettably, quite straightforward.

Here's the bottom line: if you're in the mood for a (relatively) mindless actioner--light on story and loaded with gratuitous camera shots of Catherine Zeta-Jones's bare back--then this is the film you're looking for. Hey, who needs drama and philosophy on a Friday night?

Meanwhile, I'll be content with the thought that when I'm appoaching 60, I'll be able to attract women like Zeta-Jones.

Then again, maybe Sean Connery's got something I don't.

Okay, so he's got a lot of things I don't have.

Give me a break, I'm only 18.