Layer Cake (Widescreen)
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Movie Reviews of Layer Cake (Widescreen)
Movie Review: Gorgeous Crime Drama
Summary: 5 Stars
Plot Summary:Mr. X, a successful drug dealer with a plan to retire, is suddenly thrust into a drug score gone seriously wrong by a man who plays him as a pawn. Though it takes the better part of the movie for Mr. X to set himself on rails, he quickly asserts that he is no pawn to be played by three kings. The story involves hidden deals, shifting alliances, baggage and a game where the stakes quickly escalate. This is a wonderfully well-done crime movie.
It's hard to find much fault with this movie. I didn't catch all the twists in the plot so I'm sure this is a movie that will reward one and maybe two more vieiwings. The script is pretty good. It's an intelligent script, written for a viewer of crime dramas. The script doesn't spell out why certain events are happening; you have to piece together some of the connections. It doesn't totally tune you out. You do see some causal relationships between events and characters but the movie expects you to do some of the work.
The acting and character development are solid. Daniel Craig plays this role exceptionally well. His character moves through three phases that are marked by changes in the way Craig carries Mr. X, most notably through his facial expressions. In the opening section of the movie, we see Mr. X with calm, cool assurance. He does not screw people over in his deals. He is above board, he pays proper homage, he treats the men under him right. Then the fun begins and Daniel Craig shifts his character from a man of cool composure to a man whose face reflects suppressed surprised, a bit of indignation (as if, how is it I cannot retire?!) and a fair amount of "What the heck is going on?" The final phase of Craig's character is when he accepts the forces arrayed against him and he responds.
The pace of the script is casual even though the events playing out are far from casual. I think the pacing of the script is intended to convey the sense of calm composure X has within him. Though X gets rattled during phase 2 of his character's evolution, he nevertheless comes off polished without being one of those absurd action figures who are hypertalented and who somehow manage to avoid the laws of physics. X is calm because he's going to make the deal happen.
I was pleasantly surprised to see Sienna Miller in this movie. You may know her as the stunning British blonde jilted by that cad, Jude Law. She played an excellent romantic interest in <u>Keen Eddie</u>, a well-done cop show that I loved, yet it didn't last beyond a season.
The script doesn't show any of the behind the scenes manipulations Mr. X contrives to orchestrate the close of the deal. All it shows is a piecing together of what he set in motion.
This is a visually stunning movie. It's filmed with a cinematic clarity and crispness that I totally love. I do not like graininess, washed out colors or sloppy, boring shots. Layer Cake's cinematography and production are superb. The sets are well done, with colors that convey various hues at different points in the soundtrack, but overall the colors of the set give the film a kind of steely warmth; just enough cool edge to motivate but warm enough to help you believe that X has what it takes to rise above the bar in a game with rapidly escalating stakes.
There is one shot where X goes back to marshal up forces, including his accountant. When he walks into the accountant's office, it is totally bare. The shot of X's realization that his accountant has flipped on him is stunning: X crumples into a corner where creme carpet meets yellow walls and dark red leather square accents and dark wall paper. The shot is wide and it conveys the scope of emptiness at this point: he is truly on his own and he has to make this work right.
The camera work is excellent throughout the movie and the editing ties the shots together well. Ben Davis and Jon Harris, directors of photography for this film, did a class piece of work with this film. Their sense of composition, coloring and action is spot on. Nothing ever seemed out of place in the frame. The weakest shots are of the parking lot where one team of bad guys is holed up but that's because it's a gravel lot surrounded by chain link fence and dusty cars. Every other shot is solid.
Layer Cake's soundtrack is another element of strength. At three points in the movie (maybe four -- it might have happened once before I realized it was a part of the storytelling technique), the music comes up quite loudly. The musical choices are great: edgy, driving, masculing yet also classic. Maybe a kind of upper middle class kind of feel to the groove. The loud music signals a transition point in the movie. It's a cool technique and though the music is loud, it isn't distracting and the technnique isn't cutesy.
Layer Cake is a great crime movie. It's a British piece, so expect a different take on how the plat roles out. Appreciate that the movie lets you do some thinking on your own, absorb the stunning cinematics and enjoy the story as it is told.
Movie Review: In the cocaine business you go up or you can go down, but can you get out alive?
Summary: 5 Stars
At the beginning of "L4yer Cake" a mid-level English criminal who traffics in cocaine explains the world in which he lives, which sets up his goal of getting out while he is still alive and unincarcerated. If there is anything we know from such films, it is that getting away is difficult, not just because of the inherent nature of the business or because others do thing to keep bringing you back in, but also because in such stories the pivotal moment that means success or failure for such efforts is either lurking in the shadows or rears its ugly head at the absolute wrong time. So as soon as the main character talks about his desire to walk away from this life and the credits start rolling, we know full well this is not a good sign.
The character played by Daniel Craig (we never learn his name: he is identified in the credits as XXXX, apparently so we do not confuse him with a Vin Diesel character) is clearly competent as his chosen profession. He is not stupid and he is not greedy, two things definitely in his favor. The problem is that he is called to a meeting with Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham), the next fellow up on the food chain. An ecstasy deal has turned into a complete disaster and Jimmy tells our hero (or should I just say protagonist?) to figure out what happened and fix it. As if that is not enough reason to start banging his head against the wall, he is also told to find out what happened to the daughter of Jimmy's boss, Eddie Temple (Michael Gambon). She is missing, and the reasons for it cannot be good. Plus you get the feeling that Temple is the sort who shoots the messenger, but not until he makes them suffer horribly. Ironically, keeping his nose clean (so to speak), means others are finding reasons to rub it in messes not of his own making. This means things are going to get worse, with no promise of them ever becoming better. Being smart might not be enough to get out of this one alive.
"L4yer Cake" was directed by Matthew Vaughn, who was involved in producing Guy Ritchie's films "Lock, Stock and Two Smoing Barrles" and "Snatch." Apparently he was taking notes. But as a first time director Vaughn was helped by the fact that author J.J. Connolly adapted his own novel, which makes sense since he knows the labyrinth of the narrative better than anyone else. There was a point when I was wondering how the film's main character got involved with the rest of these crooks, because they are mostly thugs, the sort who blow somebody away and then keep the incriminating gun because it is their favorite. XXXX is too good for this world and every time somebody notices that he is smart it never really seems to be a compliment because the observation always comes from a character who could be thinking that this guy is smart enough to get things done and make money, but the more likely interpretation that showing you are intelligent is liking pulling up your shirt to reveal an Uzi tucked in your pants. You cannot be too smart in this world, because that can be just as fatal as being too dumb. The only different is who gets you the cops get the dumb ones, while the smart ones are going to get taken down by their own. We are rooting for XXXX, but we are not going to put any money down on his chances.
We have a hard time figuring out what is really happening because XXXX is having just a hard time figuring things out, and his life is on the line. People do not believe him when he is telling the truth so he knows full well that when he tries to tell people the truth being believed is not a likely outcome. You have to stay ahead of the game and our hero is missing what must be entire chapters from the rule book. The bits and pieces he picks up are helping a bit, but he has to have the whole thing figure out before the final piece is put into place. Early on I gleaned onto the idea that it was really what XXXX did not know that was the potentially fatal flaw in accomplishing his assigned tasks, so when it was revealed I was waiting for it. The key thing with "L4yer Cake," assuming that you like this genre in the first place, is that the revelation is a fitting capstone to the roller coaster ride we are on.
Although the tone and the characters are nothing like it, the movie that "L4yer Cake" reminded me of was not "The Usual Suspects" or anything obvious like that, but rather "The Sting." It probably has to do with Gambon reminding me of Robert Shaw, because the comparison is by no means a spoiler; this is not even close to being a sting sort of film except in terms of narrative complexity. Fortunately, the acting is up to the writing for this film that is smart, but too smart, if you know what I mean. Remember this film and keep an eye out for what Craig, Vaughn, and Connolly do in the future, because this 2004 film could be the start of bigger things for any or all of them.
Movie Review: The best pure gangster film since "Casino"
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm not a Guy Ritchie fan. I thought "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels" was cute, but not compelling, and I thought "Snatch" was more of the same. So I wasn't expecting much from "Layer Cake," which I knew wasn't even a Guy Ritchie flick but a flick directed by the PRODUCER of "Lock, Stock, etc." and "Snatch." Things didn't look promising. However, I read a review by Roger Ebert that compared "Layer Cake" to "Goodfellas" and "Casino" and mentioned that unlike Ritchie's other films, this one took itself seriously. I decided to give it a try.
I was blown away. "Layer Cake" is lean, mean, tough, and, ultimately, tragic. It is a gangster film in the tradition of "The Long Good Friday," and if it doesn't have the epic scope that elevated "Casino" above other entries in the genre it's got echoes of that Scorcese masterpiece and a lot of good stuff of its own vintage.
Like "Casino," "Layer Cake" tells the story of a man who is very, very good at being a criminal, but makes the mistake of believing that he can stop being one. Both DeNiro's Sam Rothstein and Daniel Craig's unnamed drug dealer want to go straight, but quickly find that they've gotten in too deep, that people depend on them, and that those people will not just let them walk away. Craig's drug dealer is a smart, but self-centered man who believes he's better than the guys he works for and the guys who work for him. By the end of the film, he's learned his lesson.
Craig's slimy, serpentine performance is very convincing and effective. It's hard to see how anybody watched this film and saw the next James Bond, but that's beside the point. He's surrounded by similarly talented performers in the always dependable Colm Meaney and Michael Gambon. Sienna Miller, who plays his love interest, radiates so much warmth and sensuality that it's not difficult to believe that Craig's dealer would be distracted by her, even when it becomes clear that next week is not promised for him.
The film also looks great. Though it was shot on the cheap, you wouldn't know it for a second, as the compositions in every scene are superb and everything has a cold, barren, metallic feel to it that perfectly suits the tone of the movie. This isn't the London you've got in your minds' eye-- this is a place without history, without culture, without values. It's a bleak, soulless world. There's nothing comfortable about it.
What impressed me most about "Layer Cake," however, was not the tragic arc of the story, nor the performances, or the cinematography. It was the fact that the film didn't make mistakes, anywhere. There were no unnecessary scenes, no comic relief that didn't emerge organically out of the material, no attempts to placate the audience or make them feel better about what they were watching. The soundtrack doesn't provide easy emotional cues but picks its spots and nails them, then fades back and lets us draw our own conclusions about what we see. The romantic subplot that develops doesn't seem like an attempt to engage those put off by the rough stuff-- it's a vital part of the story, even if we don't realize it at first. The violence is profuse, but relatively bloodless-- it's cold, and businesslike, not passionate. Just like the characters engaged in it.
Finally, there are scenes that are so good, they inspire a kind of awe. I'm thinking first of a scene in which a character says precisely the wrong thing at the wrong time and violence erupts in such a controlled way that you'd think it was premeditated. Then, there's the scene with Craig and Miller in the hotel room, which is sexy without being exploitive and ends in a very unexpected way. Lastly, there's the final scene-- both the set-up, with Craig walking away from his table of friends, thinking hard, and the payoff, when the inevitable takes place just when we're thinking the movie's let its protagonist too easily off the hook.
Three great scenes. No bad scenes. No mistakes. No messiness. "Layer Cake" is an excellent film.
Rated R: Contains a remarkably limited amount of graphic violence, but a lot of people get shot; there are also some brief glimpses of sexual activity, lots of drug talk (and some, but not much, use), and language throughout
Movie Review: Lots of juicy ingredients make up this Layer Cake
Summary: 5 Stars
Boasting a whole litany of reasons for its R rating, Layer Cake delivers a hard-nosed, well-paced, intricate plot revolving around drugs, murder, and the games hoods of the three-piece-suit variety like to play. I must emphasize the word intricate - not being a natural devotee of gangster films, I had a little trouble keeping up with some of the twists - there's a pretty large number of heavies involved here, and some of the guys' thick accents didn't make things any easier for me. Basically, I just sat back and took everything as it came - even if it meant running into D just when I had figured out the connections between A, B, and C. I'm not saying the movie doesn't make sense, though, because it does - it's just more complicated than your typical mindless thriller. It is a nice change, however, to watch a movie that actually encourages the act of thinking on the part of the viewer.
I'll get in trouble if I try to describe too much of the plot. You've got this nameless dude (Daniel Craig), who's sort of upper middle class in the whole fancy gangster regime, who has no choice but to finally get his hands dirty on what he intends to be his last job. First, he's got to find the girl of one of his boss's associates, and second, he's got to arrange for the sale of a cool million pops of Ecstasy. Unfortunately, those drugs are in the hands of a big-mouthed flunkie calling himself the Duke, and he stole them from some tough Serbian joes who just aren't going to take that kind of thing lying down. Things just don't go according to plan from the start, especially when our unnamed protagonist's own associates are liable to go off half-cocked at any given moment, but the whole mess is made even more complicated when another slimy fatcat joins the fun. All of these people are connected, some going way back, but I would need several diagrams and about a half hour to explain all that. All you need to know is that our anti-hero finds himself in a real bind, stuck between the drugs he can't get his hands on and one of Europe's most dangerous hitmen - and with friends like this fellow has, he really doesn't need any enemies.
It's the ultimate game of survival for our protagonist, as he'll have to outwit, outplay, and outlast all of the other players in the game. You have to sort of like the guy, just because everyone else is slimier than he is. There's a girl in the mix, too, of course, but it's violence rather than nudity that wins this film its R rating. All of these guys play for keeps, and it's inevitable that the weak and stupid get offed. I would have liked to have seen more blood (as head shots really should be messier than they are here), but I certainly can't complain about the level of violence on display in Layer Cake. The whole thing is a cool, sleek production with a darn good soundtrack (including the obligatory Gimme Shelter), a challenging storyline, and impressive performances by all concerned (with Michael Gambon, as you might expect, standing head and shoulders above the rest). There's even a surprise or two thrown in just for kicks.
Movie Review: Vaughn serves up tasty helping of Brit action
Summary: 5 Stars
Chances are probably good that most people have never heard of Matthew Vaughn. When his movie Layer Cake opened earlier this summer in select theaters, the little hype that surrounded the film fell mostly on deaf ears by the time it hit the general American public. Now out on DVD, it's getting a bit more of the recognition it deserves... but it's just not quite enough. A movie this smart and well-executed should not be overlooked.
So where did this guy come from? Vaughn has in fact been serving as a producer for years, particularly for Guy Ritchie's films Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. Taking a page or two from Ritchie's book stylistically, Vaughn weaves together an intricate story about drug trafficking businessman XXXX (Daniel Craig) and the goings-on of the crime-ridden, British drug underworld that he conducts his business in. Exclusively an entrepreneur, he chooses not to get involved in the violent dirty work that takes place in his field. After accumulating a substantial amount of money from his deals, he decides to retire.
Of course in this line of work, things are never that easy. XXXX's boss Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham) not only enlists him to rectify a bad ecstasy deal, but also to find the missing daughter of his own boss Eddie Temple (veteran Michael Gambon). As he gets sucked further into this dangerous machine, he is forced into carrying out the tasks that he so carefully avoided before. Throw in some crooked Serbian gangsters, guns and more gangsters and you've got all-out, full throttle mayhem.
Craig is superb in his role as the mysterious lead, and though credited as XXXX, his name is never mentioned once in the movie. In fact, he's so slick that we don't even realize he's nameless until he literally reminds us at the end. The supporting cast is equally top notch, especially the stern faced Colm Meaney, the slimy Jamie Foreman, the stunning Sienna Miller and George Harris, whose fight sequence with a hobo is one of the film's most memorable.
Vaughn keeps the movie extremely stylish throughout, utilizing the aesthetics of Britain nicely by setting up swooping camera angles and pulling some tricky editing out of his sleeve. The dialogue and unexpected plot twists keep the film exciting, thanks to screenwriter (and author of the novel) J.J. Connolly. To top things off, it's loaded with a hip, retro-tinged soundtrack featuring tunes from The Cult, Duran Duran, XTC, The Rolling Stones and Joe Cocker.
The twists and turns are hard to follow at times, but that's one of the movie's best attributes: the element of surprise. And the completely unexpected ending turns out to be just the icing on the cake (pun intended). So do yourself a favor. Go rent Layer Cake today and check out this gem of a crime film that you probably missed the first helping of. Matthew Vaughn deserves your attention.