Masterful direction by a strong hand combined with intelligent scripting, a first class cast and surely the best film crew in the business have given us this tour de force espionage thriller with stylistically and technically brilliant action set pieces.
The story revolves around Sam (De Niro) who goes undercover with a specialist heist team in order to get to the organiser Seamus, a renegade Irish bad guy. The team are freelancers, the Ronin of the title, at least, most of them are, Spence (Sean Bean acting his socks off) is an incompetent, lying wannabe and is quickly unmasked by Sam. The contempt Sam has for Spence is obvious in the handful of clipped exchanges they share before Spence is embarrassingly unmasked. Deidre (Natasha McElhone) is equally out of her depth as the heist co-ordinator, allowing Sam to take centre stage during the heist preparation and the outstanding chase and action sequences that follow. When the team are double-crossed, it becomes something of a buddy movie, with Sam and Vincent (the dependable Jean Reno) using each others contacts to follow the case to Seamus. There's a minor plot device about Russian buyers but this only serves to bring all the players together for the climax. There's style aplenty in every frame and more substance in a hushed conversation than most films muster in a full running time.
As for what is in the case....it doesn't matter. It never mattered.
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