Entrapment film review

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ENTRAPMENT

Edinburgh's most famous former milkman is a sly old dog and no mistake. Exploiting his tough, smooth appeal during the Jimmy Bond era was entirely understandable, but as the years take their silvery toll, does Sean Connery relax into twinkly grandad status?

No. Not a bit of it. The Russia House: cops off with Michelle Pfeiffer; First Knight: cops off with Julia Ormond. Which brings us to Entrapment. And Catherine Zeta Jones.

Someone has just shimmied down a secure, heavily alarmed New York office block and swiped a priceless Rembrandt. Insurance investigator Virginia Baker (Zeta Jones) is convinced it's the work of legendary crook Robert MacDougal (Connery).

And with her company set to shell out some 24 million dollars in compensation claims, boss Hector Cruz (Will Patton) gives her the go ahead to enter the murky underworld of gadget-heavy theft, black marketeering and three-letter names.

Posing as an exponent of the illicit, light-fingered art herself, Gin grabs Mac's attention - initially by not wearing many clothes in her hotel bedroom - and convinces him to collaborate in an elaborate museum heist. But Mac is wary and cunning - the stakes must be high; the bait, very juicy. So he whisks them both off to the safe territory of his remote Scottish castle to prepare for the job. And there the trap is set to catch a thief.

As Connery should be well aware from his days in Her Majesty's Secret Service, this sort of snare is commonly known as a honey trap, but when the honey's this sweet, it would be a stiff test for any man to resist.

Underlining the considerable screen sex appeal - not to mention ability with accents and leading lady presence - displayed recently in The Mask Of Zorro, Zeta Jones is a captivating watch, and perfect for parts like this. With her feisty seductiveness and Connery's superstar charisma, director Jon Amiel wisely keeps an uncertain relationship simmering, and maintains a similar surface tension to the plot, spiced with some deliciously suspenseful theft sequences.

Comedy is toned down in this crime caper and at times it's probably guilty of taking itself a little too seriously, but it's a trade-off for as much realism as possible and backed up by a storyline ultimately tapping in on topical Millennial computer angst.