Mike's Recommendation: Layer Cake

Layer Cake (2005)
Director: Matthew Vaughn

"Layer Cake" is lean, mean, tough, and, ultimately, tragic. It is a gangster film in the tradition of "The Long Good Friday," and if it doesn't have the epic scope that elevated "Casino" above other entries in the genre it's got echoes of that Scorsese masterpiece and a lot of good stuff of its own vintage.

Like "Casino," "Layer Cake" tells the story of a man who is very, very good at being a criminal, but makes the mistake of believing that he can stop being one. Both DeNiro's Sam Rothstein and Daniel Craig's unnamed drug dealer want to go straight, but quickly find that they've gotten in too deep, that people depend on them, and that those people will not just let them walk away. Craig's drug dealer is a smart, but self-centered man who believes he's better than the guys he works for and the guys who work for him. By the end of the film, he's learned his lesson.

Craig's slimy, serpentine performance is very convincing and effective. He's surrounded by similarly talented performers in the always dependable Colm Meaney and Michael Gambon. Sienna Miller, who plays his love interest, radiates so much warmth and sensuality that it's not difficult to believe that Craig's dealer would be distracted by her, even when it becomes clear that next week is not promised for him.

The film also looks great. Though it was shot on the cheap, you wouldn't know it for a second, as the compositions in every scene are superb and everything has a cold, barren, metallic feel to it that perfectly suits the tone of the movie. This isn't the London you've got in your minds' eye. This is a place without history, without culture, without values. It's a bleak, soulless world. There's nothing comfortable about it.

What impressed me most about "Layer Cake," however, was not the tragic arc of the story, nor the performances, or the cinematography. It was the fact that the film didn't make mistakes, anywhere. There were no unnecessary scenes, no comic relief that didn't emerge organically out of the material, no attempts to placate the audience or make them feel better about what they were watching. The soundtrack doesn't provide easy emotional cues but picks its spots and nails them, then fades back and lets us draw our own conclusions about what we see. The romantic subplot that develops doesn't seem like an attempt to engage those put off by the rough stuff. It's a vital part of the story, even if we don't realize it at first. The violence is profuse, but relatively bloodless-- it's cold, and businesslike, not passionate. Just like the characters engaged in it.

Finally, there are scenes that are so good, they inspire a kind of awe. I'm thinking first of a scene in which a character says precisely the wrong thing at the wrong time and violence erupts in such a controlled way that you'd think it was premeditated. Then, there's the scene with Craig and Miller in the hotel room, which is sexy without being exploitative and ends in a very unexpected way. Lastly, there's the final scene-- both the set-up, with Craig walking away from his table of friends, thinking hard, and the payoff, when the inevitable takes place just when we're thinking the movie's let its protagonist too easily off the hook.

Three great scenes. No bad scenes. No mistakes. No messiness. "Layer Cake" is an excellent film.

Post by Mike