Honestly, sequel fatigue is real, and people love to dunk on Ocean's 12. It’s usually called the "self-indulgent" one, the one where the stars were just having a paid vacation in Europe while the audience tried to figure out what the heck was going on with the plot. But if you strip away the confusing "Julia Roberts playing Julia Roberts" meta-nonsense, there is one thing that actually holds the movie together. I’m talking about Catherine Zeta Jones in Oceans 12.
She played Isabel Lahiri.
She wasn't just another face in a tuxedo. She was the antagonist who wasn't really a villain, the love interest who was actually a threat, and the only person in the entire franchise who seemed to have a functional brain cell when it came to detective work.
The Impossible Task of Joining the Boys' Club
Think back to 2004. The first Ocean's 11 was a lightning-in-a-bottle moment for Steven Soderbergh. You had Clooney, Pitt, Damon—the peak of Hollywood charisma. Adding a new lead to that mix is a gamble. If they’re too weak, they get swallowed by the banter. If they’re too aggressive, they ruin the "cool" vibe.
Zeta-Jones stepped in fresh off an Oscar win for Chicago. She didn't try to out-smirk George Clooney. Instead, she played Isabel with this sharp, Europol-flavored intensity that made the heist crew actually look like they were in trouble for once. It’s a weirdly grounded performance in a movie that is otherwise floating on a cloud of its own ego.
Isabel Lahiri is a high-level Europol agent. She’s also the daughter of a legendary thief. That’s a lot of baggage. But Zeta-Jones plays it with a sort of weary competence. You get the sense she’s seen every trick in the book because she grew up in the library where the books were written.
Why Isabel Lahiri Mattered for Rusty’s Character
Let's talk about Brad Pitt’s Rusty Ryan. In the first movie, he’s the unflappable guy who’s always eating. He has no stakes. He’s just there for the ride and the paycheck. Catherine Zeta Jones in Oceans 12 changed that.
👉 See also: Is Heroes and Villains Legit? What You Need to Know Before Buying
By introducing Isabel as Rusty’s ex-girlfriend from a "job" in Rome, Soderbergh gave Rusty a pulse. We see him get flustered. We see him make mistakes. The scene where she arrests him—not through some grand action sequence, but by simply outsmarting him—is one of the few times the movie feels like it has real stakes.
Isabel isn't just a love interest. She's a mirror. She represents the life these guys lead and the inevitable burnout that comes with it. When she’s tracking them across Amsterdam and Rome, she’s not doing it for "justice" in the boring, Law & Order sense. She’s doing it because it’s the only game she knows how to play.
The Style and the "Look" of 2004
We can't talk about this role without mentioning the aesthetic. The costume design by Milena Canonero was deliberate. While the boys are wearing loose linen and open collars, Isabel is frequently in structured, sharp silhouettes.
It emphasized her isolation.
She’s always the most put-together person in the room, which makes her feel like the only adult at the party. It’s a stark contrast to Tess (Julia Roberts), who spends most of the movie looking stressed or being used as a prop in a weird celebrity prank. Isabel has agency. She drives the plot forward even when the script starts to meander into the "Night Fox" territory with Vincent Cassel.
Breaking Down the "LeMarc" Twist
The ending of Ocean's 12 is famously divisive. Some people hate it. They feel cheated because the "heist" we thought we were watching was actually a decoy for a different heist that happened off-screen.
✨ Don't miss: Jack Blocker American Idol Journey: What Most People Get Wrong
But look at Isabel’s arc.
The reveal that her father is actually Gaspar LeMarc (played by the legendary Albert Finney) is the emotional payoff. It’s the moment she stops being an agent and starts being a person again. It’s a bit soap-opera-ish? Sure. Does it work? Only because Zeta-Jones sells the vulnerability of a daughter who thought her father was a ghost.
Without that emotional beat, the movie is just a series of expensive outfits and jazz music. She provides the soul.
Why the Critics Were Wrong (Sorta)
At the time, reviews were middling. People wanted more of the Vegas flash. They didn't want a moody, European caper where the main characters lose for most of the runtime.
But if you watch it today, the performance of Catherine Zeta Jones in Oceans 12 aged better than almost anything else in the film. She manages to be intimidating without raising her voice. She uses her physicality—that specific, dancer-like poise she has—to dominate scenes with Pitt and Clooney.
She didn't return for Ocean's 13, which honestly made that movie feel a bit hollow. Without a formidable law enforcement presence, the stakes in the third film felt lower. It went back to being a pure comedy.
🔗 Read more: Why American Beauty by the Grateful Dead is Still the Gold Standard of Americana
Practical Takeaways for Re-watching
If you’re going to revisit the franchise, don't just skip the second one. Look at it as a character study of Isabel Lahiri rather than a traditional heist movie.
- Pay attention to the Rome flashback. The chemistry between Pitt and Zeta-Jones is palpable and explains why Rusty is so off his game for the rest of the film.
- Notice the technicality. Isabel describes "the look" of a thief. She explains the psychology behind the crimes. It’s some of the best writing in the movie that often gets ignored.
- Watch the fashion. If you’re into mid-2000s chic, her wardrobe is basically a masterclass in professional power dressing.
The movie isn't perfect. The Night Fox dancing through laser beams is... a choice. The Julia Roberts meta-plot is polarizing. But Catherine Zeta-Jones delivered a performance that deserved a better-reviewed movie. She was the anchor.
To really appreciate the craft here, go back and watch the scene in the police station where she’s interrogating the group. She knows they're lying. They know she knows. It’s a game of cat and mouse where the cat is infinitely more interesting than the mice.
Moving Beyond the Heist
If you want to dive deeper into this specific era of film, check out Soderbergh’s commentary tracks. He’s surprisingly honest about the production hurdles in Italy and why he chose to focus so heavily on the Isabel/Rusty dynamic. You can also compare her performance here to her work in Traffic to see how she handles being the "outsider" in a male-dominated crime narrative.
Next time someone tells you Ocean's 12 is the "bad" one, just point them toward the scenes in the Europol office. That’s where the real movie is.