The Underneath (Steven Soderbergh)

REVIEW
An understated remake of the film noir classic Criss-Cross about a ne'er-do-well ex-con who returns home to "Smallville USA" and becomes involved with his old flame, her gangster boyfriend, and an armored car robbery. Soderbergh's complex narrative (he coauthored the screenplay pseudonymously) relies on an impressive use of color tones to delineate time periods (the story is told in flashback and double flashback), thus giving the impression of layers being peeled away to reveal "the underneath" of his hauntingly etched characters.