Metascore
57 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 21 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 21
  2. Negative: 2 out of 21
  1. Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    75
    In the diamond-heist thriller Flawless, there aren't a lot of diamonds, heists or thrills. But there is a nice sense of style, and appreciation for tense face-to-face confrontations among characters trying to ignore the temptations around them.
  2. Flawless is a fictional tale, but something in director Michael Radford's conscientious, methodical presentation gives it the feeling of true history.
  3. Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    75
    It's assured and neatly crafted - the time zips by while you're watching it.
  4. 75
    As heist films go, Radford has crafted an engaging, if not especially memorable one, with Flawless.
  5. 75
    A modest little caper film that satisfies chiefly because of its relative familiarity and lack of ambition.
  6. The pleasure of watching such well-crafted entertainment offsets the small disappointments.
  7. Caine is reason enough to see any movie. He gives this clever, somewhat lumbering caper movie a deep-seated soul.
  8. 70
    Over all though, this is a first rate caper piece elevated by Caine's effortlessly elegant portrayal. The movie is wall to wall with pompous, sexist, greedy backstabbers and it's a hoot to watch Hobbs mop the floor with the lot of them.
  9. The joy of this movie, which features Joss Ackland as a memorably intimidating, Afrikaner-accented boss, is in the gradual revelation of intrigue.
  10. I enjoyed seeing Joss Ackland as well. The veteran character actor with the world's lowest voice plays the diamond company chairman, and when he rumbles out orders, it's like Sensurround never left us.
  11. 63
    The heist in Flawless comes at the film's midpoint, but although Radford wrings some nice suspense from the sequence, the theft isn't his primary focus here. It's what happens next.
  12. The filmmakers' narrative device of framing Quinn's tale as a feature-length flashback doesn't pay off - we get a goody-two-shoes moral lesson at the end, and a look at movie studio aging makeup gone wild.
  13. 63
    Polished but oddly lifeless heist thriller.
  14. Reviewed by: Gregory Valens
    60
    Not the freshest heist movie ever made, Flawless still has a few pleasures to offer, thanks to a well-studied social and political background and to Michael Caine's lovely creation.
  15. A mildly diverting period heist movie.
  16. Flawless never begins to live up to its title.
  17. It's left to Caine to wink and nod at his own contribution to real caper classics of the 1960s and '70s, produced with more emphasis on fun and less on instructive fact-finding.
  18. 50
    As neatly tailored, clean-cut, and visually appealing as a Savile Row suit. But audiences accustomed to more knowing fare are likely to find its twists and turns outdated while yearning for a little of the rebellious fun that made the genre gleam in the first place.
  19. 50
    Moore hasn't tackled a lead role since the turn of the century, and judging by her eminently forgettable work here, she hasn't spent that time painstakingly honing her chops.
  20. 38
    The plot contortions that very slowly unfold under Michael Radford's arthritic direction in Flawless are not much more entertaining.
  21. Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    30
    Flawless is the sort of movie that tends to get called "enjoyably old-fashioned," except that there's nothing enjoyable about it. The pacing is torpid, the plotting slack, and the performances utterly joyless--chiefly Moore, who walks through every scene with her face stretched into an expressionless mask, her lips pressed into a permanent pout.
User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 8 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. BobE.
    8
    A gem. Flawless is a heist movie where the motives are more complicated than the usual "it's all about the money." The very human thieves, Moore and Caine, have believable human reasons for doing it. And they sweat bullets in the process. When they pull it off you're more thrilled than you are usually with these capers - where the motives of the thieves are the same as that of nine-year-old shoplifters; to get away with it, (by being oh-so clever) and to have the toys thus purloined. Revenge, such as powered the gang in The Italian Job, is juicier than greed. The English TV series Hustle is fun because the charming characters only work their scams on those who richly deserve to be taken. Caine, the old pro, has created a marvelous character in Hobbs the janitor here. See Flawless and you won't come away feeling ripped-off. Full Review »