I recently saw the excellent British gangster film Layer Cake starring the new 007, Daniel Craig. It's about a cocaine dealer who thinks he's got it figured out, based on a novel by John Conally. It is a very stylish film from Matthew Vaughn, producer of two other excellent British gangster films, Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. Like those films it has a great soundtrack and a convoluted plot full of double crosses and a lot of action. The cinematography is also impressive. There are plenty of good roles for the character actors like Michael Gambon and Colm Meany. Apparently it has gotten new life as a DVD rental according to this article from Slate:
Layer Cake is a phenomenon that we're likely to see more of in the future, the word-of-mouth DVD hit. As such, it raises interesting questions about the future of movies in a business increasingly dominated by the home-video market—not just whether movies can perform markedly better in home video than in theaters, but what kind of movies are likely to do so. Layer Cake is a good test case in part because it's a wildly complicated and morally ambiguous film. It also has the usual problem with Cockney crime films: On first pass, the American viewer understands approximately one-third of the dialogue. Its popularity on DVD suggests that viewers are willing to abide this type of difficulty when the "pause" and "rewind" buttons are only a thumb's-length away.Layer Cake was directed by Matthew Vaughn, who produced Guy Ritchie's first two films, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. Similar to them, it's a convoluted caper movie that pits likable criminals against much-less-likable criminals. It begins with a narration by a suave and levelheaded cocaine dealer (Craig) whose character, never named, is identified in the credits as "XXXX." He lays out the "few golden rules" that help him avoid the trouble that most hoodlums get into—always work in a small team, avoid loud gangster-wannabes "in it for the glory," and avoid all contact with the street-level user. Unfortunately, just as he's planning to retire and disappear, his boss, Jimmy (Kenneth Cranham) strong-arms him into an operation in which every one of his cherished rules will be grossly violated. Not only does he end up dealing with moronic cokeheads, these cokeheads get him in trouble with a Serbian named Dragan. That's about all you can say about the plot without spoiling something important. The twists start early and keep coming.
Comments