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Okay, maybe not entirely predictably; Matthew Vaughn's film has enough twists and turns to keep the audience guessing (or confused). But the way it all happens is familiar by now: Charming but potentially violent guys at the middle level, grey-haired men with purchased respectability to shield their ruthlessness at the top, and idiotic screw-ups at the bottom. Sardonic narration, which in addition to telling the story also gives us the ins and outs of the drug business. Street names that are hard to imagine anyone using in conversation. Quick zooms and rapid-fire cutting, to better fit in about twice as much plot and twice as many characters than a hundred-minute movie really needs.

Yes, it's a Ska film, even if Guy Ritchie isn't directing. And, although I haven't actually seen a new hip movie about British low-lives every month since Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels (which believe it or not was a welcome change from/variation on the Tarantino clones that seemed to be popping up on a weekly basis at the time), it seems that way. It's time for the next fresh new style of crime drama to appear and be imitated.

Ska-fatigue aside, the movie does have its problems, the main one being that it is overstuffed. There's a plotline about having to find a crime boss's wayward daughter (a job Craig's character subcontracts out, adding even more characters and complexity). There's a million pounds worth of stolen ecstasy, which both the supplier and intended buyer want back. There's a killing from twenty years earlier that hasn't been properly avenged. There's the narrator's plans to leave the business, based on his economic theory of how to be a successful drug dealer (be honest with the people who carry guns and stick to the plans, be they long-term or short-term) - which is of course complicated by a girl (Sienna Miller), because there has to be a girl. Otherwise, not only is there little point to all the headaches the characters put themselves through, but the audience is finding homoeroticism everywhere, even where it's not intended.

Because of the sheer number of characters who all work for some criminal organization or other, much of the cast becomes something of a twentysomething male white blur. Fortunately, those guys aren't as important as the rest, who are more distinctive. Craig stands out because we're hearing his voice constantly as the narrator, and because he's in just about every scene; I'll bet screenwriter J.J. Connolly's original novel was first-person. He's a little older than many of the people he works with, and more thoughtful - part of the reason he wants to get out is that he knows that legitimate pharmaceutical companies will see the money to be made, push for legalization, and undercut the criminals' prices. He tends to associate more with the people above him in the hierarchy - Morty (George Harris), a long-time enforcer, and Gene (Colm Meaney), the main assistant to gangster Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham). Harris and Meaney are character actors who have built up noteworthy resumés on both sides of the Atlantic; even folks who don't know Meaney's name will likely recognize him as That Guy in things from Star Trek to The Commitments. Cranham is amusing enough as that enjoyable type, the gangster who has bought his way into the country club but doesn't really belong there, while Michael Gambon is more chilling as the gangster who blends into the upper class quite well, until such time as he has to get mean.

There's not much the good cast can do here, though. The script is too convoluted, and though Vaughn isn't as showy as some of his peers, he's not quite driven to focus on clarity, either. There's a scene early in the movie that flashes "Amsterdam" as a location, but there's never another location specified, meaning this silly American wasn't sure exactly when they returned to the UK - one back alley looks like another, right? And that's just the most egregious example. This is not a solidly constructed movie.

I'd like to enjoy "Layer Cake" more - I'm a little weary of crime, but I still like it a lot when done well. Vaughn and company don't do a lot where you can look at the movie and say "right now, they're screwing up"; but the cumulative effect isn't good, and there are scant great moments to counter that.

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originally posted: 06/27/05 20:58:21
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