Flawless

ReelViews James Berardinelli

As heist films go, Radford has crafted an engaging, if not especially memorable one, with Flawless.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

The pleasure of watching such well-crafted entertainment offsets the small disappointments.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

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.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Flawless is a fictional tale, but something in director Michael Radford's conscientious, methodical presentation gives it the feeling of true history.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

It's assured and neatly crafted - the time zips by while you're watching it.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Caine is reason enough to see any movie. He gives this clever, somewhat lumbering caper movie a deep-seated soul.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A modest little caper film that satisfies chiefly because of its relative familiarity and lack of ambition.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The joy of this movie, which features Joss Ackland as a memorably intimidating, Afrikaner-accented boss, is in the gradual revelation of intrigue.

Film Threat Rick Kisonak

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.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Polished but oddly lifeless heist thriller.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

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.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

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.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

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.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

A mildly diverting period heist movie.

The Hollywood Reporter Gregory Valens

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.

Variety Jonathan Holland

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.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

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.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

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.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Flawless never begins to live up to its title.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

The plot contortions that very slowly unfold under Michael Radford's arthritic direction in Flawless are not much more entertaining.

Village Voice Scott Foundas

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.