#SOLOSTORIES: “OCEAN’S EIGHT”

SoloStories is our feature in which we explore books, films and TV shows that show single women navigating their lives – but romance is not the main component.

The 2018 movie “Ocean’s Eight” depicts women spearheading a jewel heist. But it’s so much more – they don’t want the shiny object. They want the money to pursue their freedom.

Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) has just been released from prison, and she wants to rebuild her life. (She also wants to avenge the boyfriend who entrapped her.) She knows how – stealing the pricey jewels during the Met Gala. She recruits a band of women who bring different skills sets, from hacking computers to deconstructing and remaking the jewels. With the exception of one character (Sarah Paulson’s harried mom Tammy), they are all single.

The movie is a spinoff of the male-centered “Ocean’s Eleven” films and, like those movies, is pure fantasy. There’s hardly a moment when you feel their lives are in danger or that anything may go wrong. When an investigator (James Corden) comes in, you’ll know they will outwit him. It’s a movie designed to look at pretty clothes and jewels and escape from reality for a few hours.

There’s also not a scene where they are worried about what their husband or boyfriend will think. At the end of the movie – since it came out in 2018, it’s not a spoiler – they can now pursue their lives as they want to. The jeweler is in Paris, the hacker and fashion designer have started their own businesses, the pickpocket owns her own apartment and is even on the co-op board, and the actor is directing a movie. Debbie Ocean pops a cocktail to her “late” brother, finally finding some peace. But our favorite in this montage is Lou (Cate Blanchett), the co-ringleader, driving her motorcycle along the California coast, all by herself. There’s no one who she has to answer to. The women of “Ocean’s Eight” may be rich, but they also have found power and independence.