Another Look at Out of Sight by Elmore Leonard

Twenty-plus years of Elmore Leonard imitators – with Quentin Tarantino at the front of the pack, and imitators of imitators – have taken some of the edge off, and the fun out of Leonard’s dialogue. But not all of it.

His 1996 novel, Out of Sight, is still a fast, breezy read with well drawn characters, tons of suspense, and swift violent action that hits you like a smack in the face.

Out of Sight is the story of wanted bank robber Jack Foley and federal marshal Karen Sisco who is hunting for him.

Jack and Karen first meet outside a Florida prison when she arrives just as he pops up out of an escape tunnel. Jack, and a buddy waiting for him, overpower Karen, put her in the trunk of her own car and then Jack climbs in with her.

Snuggled up to each other for the getaway, they get to talking as if on a date.

This may sound familiar because director Steven Soderbergh made a good movie from it with George Clooney as Jack and Jennifer Lopez as Karen.

Karen gets away from Jack and Jack gets away from the law. But there was a weird kind of connection between them in that trunk and each wants to see the other again.

Jack and his buddy, Buddy, drive from Florida to Michigan and get with some violent gangsters planning to rob a mansion. Karen gets a line on Jack and tracks him to Detroit.

Why two cool bank robbers like Jack and Buddy would get involved with this new plan is the biggest mystery in Leonard’s crime story. But the author’s skill and style makes it easy to overlook that little problem.

The main thing that diverts a reader’s attention from the hitches in the plot is the budding love story between Jack and Karen. The savvy, middle aged, and very smooth bank robber is smitten with the young, attractive fed. The danger of falling hard for her is whether Karen will fall for him or snap the cuffs on him.

At its heart, Out of Sight, is a romance novel and an example of what can happen when the master of one genre dips into another.

Clooney and J.Lo in Out Of Sight from the novel by Elmore Leonard

Saturday was gloomy and rainy so the perfect movie to watch was “Out Of Sight.”

We had seen it before, 22 years ago when it was out on the big screen, and we enjoyed seeing it again.

Enjoyed is the right word for this romantic comedy crime film starring George Clooney as a smooth, charming bank robber who never uses a gun, and Jennifer Lopez as a U.S. Marshal who does.

Clooney’s Jack Foley escapes from prison and is met by his crime buddy, Buddy, played by Ving Rhames. But the escape plan goes sideways when Lopez’s Marshal Karen Sisco gets in the way.

The two stars meet cute by being stuffed into the trunk of a car and chatting while Buddy drives. They separate and Karen joins the team hunting for Jack. His trail leads from Florida to Detroit where he plans to rip off a fortune in diamonds from a rich crook he met in prison.

Other hoods and supporting characters come into the story and are memorably played by a large cast, including a lot of well-known actors like Don Cheadle, Catherine Keener, Dennis Farina, Albert Brooks, Luis Guzman, Viola Davis, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson, and a hilarious Steve Zahn.

The whole thing is a hard to relate in any sensible way because the source material was Elmore Leonard’s novel of the same name, and few can tell a wacky, twist-filled tale like Leonard.

Steven Soderbergh directed the picture and went on to make many more big movies with big movie stars, some serious like “Traffic,” others fun like the Ocean films.

Seeing “Out Of Sight” made me want to re-watch other films based on Leonard stories like “Jackie Brown” and “Get Shorty.” But mostly, it reminded me that I have not read any Elmore in a long time.