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Layer Cake
Cast: Daniel Craig, Michael Gambon, Kenneth Cranham, George Harris, Jamie Foreman, Colm Meaney. Directed by Matthew Vaughn. Based on the book by J.J. Connelly. Story: A drug dealer tries to leave the business but runs into resistance. Running Time: 1 hour 44 mins. Certificate 15.
I enjoyed this film: I think the average moviegoer will enjoy it: (men), (women) Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: Gangsters, drugs, London organised crime culture. Sienna Miller teases. To enjoy this film you should be: prepared to concentrate.
To buy Layer Cake, use this link: Layer Cake [DVD]. Or you can buy some other Brit bad boy films by clicking on the appropriate link below: Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels [DVD] |
Welcome to the Layer Cake, son. Stylish, sharp, witty - Layer Cake is all of these and more.
British gangster drama works so much better than the American dross we are usually lumbered with and Layer Cake
is a spankingly clear demonstration of this. The older members of the cast are sensational and make the film -
Michael Gambon (from
The Singing Detective TV series and Dumbledore from Harry Potter) and Kenneth Cranham (who the older
among us might remember from Shine On, Harvey Moon) are a joy to watch and the supporting cast,
including Colm Meaney (Star Trek) and Dexter Fletcher (Lock Stock and the
old kiddie's TV series Press Gang) sustain the magic and thus earn their pay cheques. The story is
intricate, believable and unpredictable, as is often the case with movies-from-books, with the plot moving
on at an appropriately rapid rate throughout. You need to concentrate to follow it all, as in LA Confidential,
but stick with it as it's worth the effort. The odd chuckle along the way always helps - some come from the
witty script while some come from the gratuitous violence, bizarrely. It's a credit to director Matthew Vaughn
that one person being shot through the head is made to be funny whilst another scene of overblown vengeance
is quite shocking (Morty in the cafe, for those who have seen it).
It's not all roses, though. Where Layer Cake suffers is, once again, the marketing.
Watch the trailer or read the poster and you'll expect another Lock, Stock
and Two Smoking Barrels, or another Snatch. Go in with that expectation and it will be dashed. Guy Ritchie's
films are far more stylish, quicker, funnier and more polished. Layer Cake is a worthy stand-alone movie, but
sit it next to Lock Stock and it looks pale and serious in comparison. Once again the advertisers have succeeded
in drawing more people into the film at the expense of their enjoyment of it. I would have been toying with a 5-star
rating had it not been for the realisation half-way through the film that I wasn't laughing out loud like I was
expecting to. Having said that though, Layer Cake is indeed multi-layered in a way that Lock Stock and Snatch
didn't attempt. It works on a narrative level, an aesthetic level and even a sociological level, so there should
be a layer there for everyone. Except perhaps Mary Whitehouse.
