An Out of Sight remix of sorts from director Steven Soderbergh, No Sudden Move follows a criminal plot gone awry in 1954 Detroit. The ensemble cast is anchored by Don Cheadle and Benicio Del Toro as Curt and Ronald, two hired guns assigned to hold an auto executive’s family hostage while he obtains a mysterious document from company headquarters. Things do not, as they say, go as planned. Cheadle is wonderful—weary and gravelly as an underestimated ex-con playing everyone’s assumptions about him to his advantage. And the score, by Out of Sight‘s David Holmes, is a jaunty, noirish pleasure—something like Ennio Morricone meets Angelo Badalamenti. Unfortunately Soderbergh, who also serves as cinematographer and editor under his usual aliases, makes a few technical choices that get in the way, as is his wont (see High Flying Bird). Whatever camera he employs here stretches the screen and blurs the edges, similar to the panoramic setting on an iPhone but with less clarity. The lighting, especially in the interior scenes, is often dim (and not in a Godfather way). As for Ed Solomon’s screenplay, it suffers from a severe case of deus ex messaga, in which a Very Important Theme gets dropped on the movie’s final third with a thud. Still, not only Del Toro and Cheadle, but also Brendan Fraser, Amy Seimetz, Jon Hamm, David Harbour, Ray Liotta, Bill Duke, Kieran Culkin, Julia Fox, and—briefly—Matt Damon all seem to be having fun. So chances are you will too.
