If you were casting a movie about a bunch of brash British guys who attempted to steal the most valuable diamond in the world, you could not find anyone better to play your main character than Lee Wenham. He’s the real life guy who conceived of the crime at the center of the Netflix documentary, “The Diamond Heist.”
The diamond in question was a rarity, weighing over 200 carats, put on display along with other valuable stones in London’s then-new Millennium Dome (now the O2 Arena) in November, 2000. From the moment it was announced by the diamond company, DeBeers, the criminal underworld perked up. Denham, who followed his father into a life of crime, started working on how he and just a few associates could pull it off.
In Steven Soderbergh’s “Ocean’s Eleven,” Matt Damon thought the massive heist George Clooney and Brad Pitt were planning would essentially be “a smash-and-grab job.” It was far more complex than that.
But in “The Diamond Heist,” that’s exactly what Denham planned — get in, get the jewels, and get away.
“The Diamond Heist” was written and directed by Jesse Vile, but executive produced by Guy Ritchie, and his fingerprints are all over it. That means big, bold graphics and well-produced reenactments of the preparations for the job — by both the crooks and the cops. Each side gets a chapter in which they explain the steps they took along the way to the climactic moments, followed by what happened to the participants afterwards. There’s even a reporter from one of London’s top tabloids who recalled how he couldn’t wait to tell the story, knowing it would sell a lot of newspapers (which was still a thing twenty-five years ago).
It’s a thrilling tale, told in edge-of-your-seat fashion over three installments that almost demand a binge-watch. Rarely has a true crime story been this much fun. Now streaming on Netflix.