SEXY BEAST
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Gal is a 50s-ish London cockney gangster who has
retired to Spain. His old associates want him for one
last job and send the vicious Don to give him an offer he
can't refuse. A standout performance by Ben Kingsley as
Don cannot save what is essentially a set of cliches
recycled from old Westerns. Rating: 4 (0 to 10), 0 (-4 to
+4)
Roger Ebert asks in his review of SEXY BEAST, "Who would have guessed that the most savage mad-dog frothing gangster in recent movies would be played by... Ben Kingsley?" My response would be that anyone who has seen Alan Arkin in WAIT UNTIL DARK, Henry Fonda in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, or Anthony Hopkins in THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS should have guessed it. They should know that the way for a film to create a really creepy sociopath is cast someone who generally plays mild, sympathetic, or even ineffectual character roles. The same characteristics that make an actor seem gentle in most of his roles can work in his favor when a role calls for him to be fierce and vicious. That is the principle that works for Kingsley in SEXY BEAST.
Gary "Gal" Dove (played by Ray Winstone) has retired from a London career of crime and is living on a luxurious villa in Spain. Life has become a routine of sunning himself and relaxing. But his paradise is about to be shattered by a one-two-punch. The first punch is a boulder that comes rolling down the hill next to the villa. The second punch comes from Gal's past. Back in London gang boss Teddy Bass (Ian McShane, TV's Lovejoy) is planning to break into a safety deposit room in a bank and he wants Gal. He sends his most rabid henchman Don Logan (Ben Kingsley) to fetch Gal. Don will accept any decision Gal makes from "yes" to "certainly." However, if Gal says "no" Don will do whatever it takes to turn it into a yes including threatening Guy's ex-porn- star wife DeeDee (Amanda Redman). In the meantime Don knows just how to get under everybody's skin. Kingsley makes Don a compact package of fury and nastiness.
There are some serious problems in Louis Mellis's and David Scinto's script that should have been caught before filming. When we see the actual crime we have no idea why Gal was so important to its success. Beyond an ability to use skin-diving gear, no special talents are required of him. Any local hood could have done what Gal is needed for. Additionally the crime involves digging from a swimming pool to the bank vault, flooding the vault. No only could they have let the water out of the pool and avoided the complication altogether, but there is by far too much water to be accounted for by what was in the pool.
In spite of the provocative title, the story is cliched and overly familiar. I know I have seen all the plot elements of SEXY BEAST in old Westerns like THE LAW AND JAKE WADE. The story is usually of the reformed outlaw, a Robert Taylor type, who has hung up his guns and is trying for a life of peaceful respectability. The old gang, however, wants to do one more job with their old buddy and sends a rabid Richard Widmark type to go and git ‘im. It is not a great plot. In SEXY BEAST even the plot twists have gray beards. Perhaps the film has a little more respectability because it was made not as a Western but as a stylish British gangster film. It is an old plot dressed up to look new.
If the plot is old, at least the style is creative. This is director Jonathan Glazer's first film, but he has reputedly done some notable TV ads for Guinness Stout. His style does have some unexpected touches including some very odd dream sequences. Cinematographer Ivan Bird uses a lot of half lit scenes. We see one side of a person's faces. But the other side fades into the darkness, a sort of metaphor for the half-world these characters in-habit. Half of everything that is happening is also kept hidden.
Us Yanks will have a hard time with some of the dialog. At least in my theater it was difficult to make out the words with the quiet speaking, the heavy accents, and the cockney language.
SEXY BEAST is a very and familiar minor plot lent respectability in the US by being done in what is here a still somewhat novel genre, the London crime film. The plot may be new to British crime films, but it would be overly familiar as a Western. Further respectability comes from Ben Kingsley's high-powered performance. I give it a 4 on the 0 to 10 scale and a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
_mleeper@excite.com
Copyright 2001 Mark R. Leeper
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