Brit lit offers some good old hard-nosed kick to the teeth payback and an intelligently devised screenplay.
It’s a rare breed of crime thriller film that doesn’t depend on car chases, countless rounds of ammo or a pair of femme fatales to entertain its audiences. Making a seamless transition from producer to director, Matthew Vaughn’s directorial debut comes from the same school of hip as the sleek and stylized works of his protégé Guy Ritchie, but adds a degree of intellect to a tired subgenre. While the British urban lingo might ask for a concentrated effort – so will the mind-bending series of double crosses and plot twists making the experience of watching a film like Layer Cake all the more pleasurable.
In the criminal underworld, the best drug dealers or free market entrepreneurs as the rugged and chiseled protagonist and narrator of the film tells us are the ones who don’t flash their success and are the ones that remain, at least, one step ahead of the game. Actor Daniel Craig personifies the notion of cool – but in this behind the scenes, intricately detailed, multi–layered, plot-twisting novella turned big-screen script by J.J. Connolly novel, there is more backstabs than all of Norman Bates’ victims combined. The gangster with no-name seemingly loses his grip and his prolific profile takes a psychological and physical beating – much to the enjoyment of the testosterone crowds filling up the seats.
Aside from the multiple layers in story structure, there is a fine description of the gangster class system – emblematic names, different kingpin power positions and a vast supply of interesting characters are divulged every couple of sequences and are well fitted inside the film’s swift pacing. While this is not a film that is especially strong in the character development and more concerned about plot-twisting devices, Vaughn establishes a strong aesthetic sense. The camera work, matched by cool contemporary pop soundtrack and some interesting interior shots and original use of the parts of London add to the overall ambiance.
Part of the fun in this elaborate script is trying to figure out heads from tales amidst the sometimes confusing amounts of characters, motivations, and subplots – the story never lets onto whether the protagonist has lost his edge, or if he simply ran into one too many instances of bad luck. In the end, the perfect circle forms and everything comes together and yet it remains far from predictable. The last British crime film worth a mention was Sexy Beast, clearly, with Layer Cake, Vaughn shows that he is in the right game.
