This zany screen adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel perfectly catches its funky portrait of idiosyncratic characters dealing with the craziness of human desire. Steven Soderbergh directs from a screenplay by Scott Frank. George Clooney plays Jack Foley, a veteran bank robber who lands in prison after blowing a getaway. While doing time, this smooth-talking wheeler-dealer comes up with some important contacts for his next job. Unwilling to serve out his term, Foley breaks out of prison but becomes smitten by Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez), a Federal Marshal who keeps dogging him.
Both of them wind up in Detroit where Foley and his partner (Ving Rhames) have designs on some uncut diamonds in the mansion of Ripley (Albert Brooks), a rich white collar criminal. Also with their eyes on this prize are Snoopy Miller (Don Cheadle) and a whacked-out petty thief (Steve Zahn). The message of all of Elmore Leonard novels is don't judge anyone too quickly. In Out of Sight the Federal Marshal is a secret wild woman, and a Good Samaritan lurks in the heart of the bank robber.