Layer Cake
Y
Oct 19, 2004
This review was written for the theatrical release of "Layer Cake."
LONDON -- In Matthew Vaughn's cleverly made British gangster film, the thing crooks overlook is that the criminal world, like the English class system, is made up of layers. So it's very dangerous to forget to which layer you belong.
"Layer Cake" is smartly put together, with interesting characters and caustic wit, and ranks head and shoulders above recent U.K. gangster films. Vaughn, who produced "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch," makes his directing debut while delivering a far more grown-up piece of work than his old partner, Guy Ritchie, who directed those films. Fans of crime pictures with a touch of intelligence will be well rewarded, and boxoffice potential is solid.
Daniel Craig stars as an unnamed and apparently smart individual who is living large on the proceeds of a carefully tended drug distribution business. Life is so good, he says, he can taste it in his spit. His drug maker has a first in industrial chemistry from Cambridge, and his minder, Morty (George Harris), hides his instinct for extreme violence beneath a dapper exterior.
The nameless smoothie is making plans to get out of the racket when, inevitably, a villain named Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham), from a slightly superior layer in the cake, requires of him a certain favor. It involves handling and selling a huge batch of Ecstasy pills.
What our man doesn't know is that the pills have been stolen in bloody circumstances by a flamboyantly uncouth person named Duke (Jamie Foreman), who hails from a much lower layer. Soon the original owner, a very annoyed man in Amsterdam who uses a Serbian killer as his personal assassin, is on the trail of the stolen pills.
Also involved are a very well-connected middleman named Gene (Colm Meaney) and a smoothly groomed gent from the top layer named Eddie Temple (Michael Gambon). There will be much slicing of the cake and considerable bloodshed before one or another gets the icing and somebody is left with crumbs.
Using London locations inventively, Vaughn and his first-rate crew, including cinematographer Ben Davis and editor Jon Harris, deliver a highly diverting modern morality tale filled with ingenious gags and nifty twists. Music producers Teese Gohl and Steve McLaughlin have also put together a terrific selection of songs for the soundtrack.
LAYER CAKE
Sony Pictures Classics
Columbia Pictures in association with Marv Films
Credits:
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Screenwriter: J.J. Connolly
Producers: Matthew Vaughn, Adam Bohling, David Reid
Executive producer: Stephen Marks
Director of photography: Ben Davis
Production designer: Kave Quinn
Editor: Jon Harris
Cast:
X: Daniel Craig
Gene: Colm Meaney
Jimmy Price: Kenneth Cranham
Morty: George Harris
Duke: Jamie Foreman
Tammy: Sienna Miller
Eddie Temple: Michael Gambon
Slavo: Marcel Iures
Clarkie: Tom Hardy
Terry: Tamer Hassan
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 104 minutes
LONDON -- In Matthew Vaughn's cleverly made British gangster film, the thing crooks overlook is that the criminal world, like the English class system, is made up of layers. So it's very dangerous to forget to which layer you belong.
"Layer Cake" is smartly put together, with interesting characters and caustic wit, and ranks head and shoulders above recent U.K. gangster films. Vaughn, who produced "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch," makes his directing debut while delivering a far more grown-up piece of work than his old partner, Guy Ritchie, who directed those films. Fans of crime pictures with a touch of intelligence will be well rewarded, and boxoffice potential is solid.
Daniel Craig stars as an unnamed and apparently smart individual who is living large on the proceeds of a carefully tended drug distribution business. Life is so good, he says, he can taste it in his spit. His drug maker has a first in industrial chemistry from Cambridge, and his minder, Morty (George Harris), hides his instinct for extreme violence beneath a dapper exterior.
The nameless smoothie is making plans to get out of the racket when, inevitably, a villain named Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham), from a slightly superior layer in the cake, requires of him a certain favor. It involves handling and selling a huge batch of Ecstasy pills.
What our man doesn't know is that the pills have been stolen in bloody circumstances by a flamboyantly uncouth person named Duke (Jamie Foreman), who hails from a much lower layer. Soon the original owner, a very annoyed man in Amsterdam who uses a Serbian killer as his personal assassin, is on the trail of the stolen pills.
Also involved are a very well-connected middleman named Gene (Colm Meaney) and a smoothly groomed gent from the top layer named Eddie Temple (Michael Gambon). There will be much slicing of the cake and considerable bloodshed before one or another gets the icing and somebody is left with crumbs.
Using London locations inventively, Vaughn and his first-rate crew, including cinematographer Ben Davis and editor Jon Harris, deliver a highly diverting modern morality tale filled with ingenious gags and nifty twists. Music producers Teese Gohl and Steve McLaughlin have also put together a terrific selection of songs for the soundtrack.
LAYER CAKE
Sony Pictures Classics
Columbia Pictures in association with Marv Films
Credits:
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Screenwriter: J.J. Connolly
Producers: Matthew Vaughn, Adam Bohling, David Reid
Executive producer: Stephen Marks
Director of photography: Ben Davis
Production designer: Kave Quinn
Editor: Jon Harris
Cast:
X: Daniel Craig
Gene: Colm Meaney
Jimmy Price: Kenneth Cranham
Morty: George Harris
Duke: Jamie Foreman
Tammy: Sienna Miller
Eddie Temple: Michael Gambon
Slavo: Marcel Iures
Clarkie: Tom Hardy
Terry: Tamer Hassan
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 104 minutes
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