Sexy Beast (2001) Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com/
"Are you gonna do it, yes or no?" "No." "Fuck you, wanker, you're doing it!"
Starring Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley, Ian McShane, Amanda Redman. Directed by Jonathan Glazer. Rated R.
Sexy Beast isn't nearly as interesting as it thinks it is. It's fueled by lead performances that are far more electrifying than the characters they embody. As heist flicks go, this one is stunningly boring, as a gangster film it's nonsensical and as a character study it's far too shallow to be taken seriously. But it is blessed with Ray Winstone and Ben Kingsley, and they just about redeem Jonathan Glazer's debut effort.
This is the kind of "quirky" British movie that gets high marks with critics because it opens with a scene of portly Gal (Ray Winstone), mumbling words like "burning" and "scorching" while sunbathing in a Speedo. He's a retired criminal who dreads the arrival of Don Logan, an über-gangster who will try to reel him in for One Last Heist. His family, none of them strangers to the criminal underworld, worry that Gal will be convinced and leave his tranquil life in a Spanish villa to risk going to jail.
Don Logan arrives in the form of the terrifying Ben Kingsley. Yes, the Ben Kingsley who embodied Ghandi and the mild-mannered Jewish accountant in Schindler's List. He doesn't take "no" for an answer. Actually, he doesn't take "no" for anything and completely ignores Gal's repeated, if rather timid, denials, which invariably begin with "I'm flattered that you'd think of me, but..."
The interplay between Kingsley and Winstone is easily the best thing about this hit-and-miss affair. Their rapid-fire dialogue can be difficult to understand, since the British dialect they speak comes from a part of London that tourists never go, but I had no trouble keeping up with the general gist of their conversations, which are often wickedly funny. Still, there is no insight contained in the back-and-forth; no Tarantino-like layering and depth. It's entertaining to watch, yes, but nothing more.
Minor spoilers coming up...
This would be okay, but the movie takes a wrong turn after act two, which ends with the dismissal of one of the main characters and proceeds to stage what may be the least interesting movie heist in history. There's a fundamental error in logic here; since everything that preceded it focuses on whether or not the heist would take place, there is absolutely no reason for us to care about its outcome. It takes place. Great. It's not the appropriate payoff for Glazer's markedly different set-up.
Ben Kingsley is awesome, yes, and it's almost a certainty that he will get an Oscar nod come February. Winstone also does a great job with his underwritten role. But we have no emotional investment in their characters or the plot, and it doesn't feel like Glazer does either. This isn't a mindless Hollywood cash cow, but there is no impression that it's a labor of love. Of course, the worst movies can sometimes have truly dedicated filmmakers behind them (Battlefield Earth is already a cliche of an example). I don't know what the big deal is about this. The general sentiment towards Sexy Beast seems to be a close equivalent of "where have you been all my life?" but I don't think it's remotely a great movie. I wasn't bored, but I didn't care.
Grade: C+
Up Next: Rush Hour 2
©2001 Eugene Novikov
===== --Eugene Novikov lordeugene_98@yahoo.com
"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion but not his own facts." (Daniel Patrick Moynihan)
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