Neo-noir by Douglas Keesey

Author:Douglas Keesey [Douglas Keesey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781842434123
Publisher: Oldcastle Books
Published: 2010-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Comments

In director Steven Soderbergh’s previous neo-noir, The Underneath, Michael and Rachel suffered from a tragic case of bad timing: he was a reckless gambler while she wanted to settle down, and when he finally matured enough to seek a steady romance, she had turned wild and untrustworthy. By contrast, in Out of Sight, Jack and Karen eventually get their timing right. At first it seems as though the two are incompatible. After all, he is an outlaw and she represents the law. A career criminal, he seems destined to die in a shootout or to wind up in prison again, and her job is to ensure one of these fates for him. ‘This is not going to end well,’ Karen tells him; ‘these things never do.’ Jack too fears that their romance will end before it has even begun: ‘It’s like seeing someone for the first time… You look at each other and for a few seconds there’s this kind of recognition… The next moment the person’s gone, and it’s too late to do anything about it.’ But the force of their desire for each other enables Jack and Karen to take a ‘time-out’, to lift themselves out of the fatalistic noir plot and make time for a happily-ever-after romance. They do this by departing from their set roles. Jack kidnaps Karen but only so that he can spend some time close to her in the car’s trunk. Karen pursues Jack because she is interested in capturing him for herself. Jack and Karen extend their cat-and-mouse game for as long as possible so that they can continue their interaction and not bring it to a predetermined bad end. As Karen chases Jack from Miami to Detroit, the hues darken from coral-coloured pastels to gun-metal blues as the plot seems to take an inevitable turn for the worse, but even in snowy-cold Detroit the couple find the time to communicate verbally (in the cocktail lounge) and sexually (in the hotel bed). As the two make love, a freeze-frame lifts them out of time, preserving their intimacy forever. And at the end, by orchestrating Jack’s future escape from prison, Karen ensures that there will be no end to their romance since she will be ‘required’ to pursue him again once he gets out. Despite their roles as cop and criminal, Karen and Jack are ultimately compatible. As a risk taker herself, she is attracted to bad boys, and he, though an outlaw, is a non-violent one: he’s never forced himself on a woman or used a gun when robbing a bank. After taking Karen’s gun from her during the kidnapping, Jack later leaves it on a pillow once they have made love, returning her power to her. And Karen, after shooting Jack in the leg, ensures that he can escape and gives him back his Zippo lighter, restoring his manhood and their romantic spark.

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