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Layer Cake - Movie Review - Buy Movies - Rent MoviesLets thank Mr Guy Ritchie for he is undoubtedly the man that breathed a new lease of life into British cinema with his offerings of Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, and the extremely funny follow up; Snatch. Let's also thank Mr. Matthew Vaughn for his take on gangster life in Layer Cake. Daniel Craig plays XXXX, a smart cocaine dealer who sees himself more as a businessman rather than a gangster wannabe coke seller. He has plans to one day retire from the cutthroat world of drugs but after a meeting with his boss Jimmy (Kenneth Cranham) he realises that his best laid plans of retiring are going to be more difficult than first planned. With help from his right hand man Morty (George Harris), XXXX is asked to do business with a Mr. Big/gangster wannabe who goes by the name of The Duke. As well as this he is ordered to look for his boss’s best friend’s, Eddie, (Sir Michael Gambon) daughter who has escaped from a drugs rehabilitation unit. As XXXX goes on in his ignorance he does not realise that he is being dragged into a double crossing conspiracy that is possibly too much for him to handle. XXXX needs to use his charm and brains to dig himself out of trouble.
Credit goes to Matthew Vaughan who on his directorial feature film debut has well and truly delivered the goods. Possessing a fantastic script, this movie shows both sides of the drug dealing culture of the top dogs. This picture succeeds in showing that higher up in the chain these people may be perceived to have the power, the women and the money but most importantly it shows that the drugs industry beneath the surface is deceitful, deceptive and extremely unglamorous.
Craig (who was rumoured to be playing Bond in the next instalment) puts in a strong performance as do the rest of the cast but none of them are outstanding. However the superseding factor is they seem to gel superbly on screen, which in turn culminates in them supporting each other exceptionally well. This was aided by the presence of Gambon and Cranham as part of the ensemble.
As well as having good actors, direction, script and story, Layer Cake also possesses a very good OST. With tracks like Ordinary World and Joe Cocker’s cover of Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, which seems to be cropping up everywhere since Quentin Tarantino used Santa Esmerelda’s version in Kill Bill Vol.1, makes for a toe tapping experience during the film.
Layer Cake is not quite the British Classic that was expected but having said that it is a thoroughly enjoyable film. This movie contains slight flashes of dark humour and infrequent but very brutal violence but the flaw in this picture is that the storyline, at times may be a little difficult to keep up and disjointed. Unexplained reappearances of certain characters i.e. XXXX love interest certainly does not help but all in all it does not spoil the movie.
Unfortunately Layer Cake will be compared to Lock Stock… and Snatch. This is undoubtedly a compliment to Vaughan but comparisons are unfair because firstly Layer Cake should be taken as its own movie and secondly this is darker than the formers. Nevertheless, if you liked those movies and the British Gangster movie genre then this is the film for you. Leon Nicholson
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