OK, time for another Criterion Channel movie. This time around, I went with Sexy Beast, director Jonathan Glazer’s film debut. I am not overly familiar with his work either, but I do know his most recent, The Zone of Interest, was up for Best Picture recently, so even if Glazer’s filmography is only about four movies long right now, his work may be something I want to pay attention to in the future.
Besides, this movie is the basis that Christopher Moltisanti wanted to recruit actor Ben Kingsley for the crime movie he was making in that one episode of The Sopranos. Kingsley isn’t my first choice to play a gangster, but if the movie is as good as I heard it was, he may be a big reason why.
Gary “Gal” Dove (Ray Winstone) is enjoying retirement in Spain. He’s got a nice villa with his wife, former porn star DeeDee (Amanda Redman), and he’s left his own life as a criminal behind him. He just wants to soak up the sun by the pool and enjoy time with DeeDee, his best friend Aitch (Cavan Kendall) and Aitch’s wife Jackie (Julianne White). But something is setting Gal on edge, and it isn’t just that a boulder just barely missed him as he was standing poolside. No, he gets word that his former associate Don Logan (Kingsley) is coming to see him. Gal has done everything he could to avoid the guy, but Don found him anyway.
See, Don is recruiting for a job, robbing a bank that most people don’t even know exists because of how exclusive the clientele are, at the behest of London crime lord Teddy Bass (Ian McShane). There’s already a plan in place. Bass just wants people he can rely on to pull it off. For Don, that’s Gal. Gal doesn’t want to go. Don won’t take “no” for an answer, and Don is not even remotely a pleasant person, a hard-swearing man with a penchant for violence. He doesn’t commit a lot of violence in the course of the movie. He just gives off that aura like he might at any second. Gal may just have to go back to London whether he wants to or not. It’s that, or maybe Don will kill him or something.
First off, yeah, Kingsley is great in this movie. He has this tough guy, don’t give a snowball’s chance in Hell attitude, but he still has a bit of charm to his performance. Lots of characters that seem dangerous can give off those auras. No one would really want to associate with a character like that in the real world, but at the same time, they can make for compelling characters in a work of fiction. And while Gal dreams of some sort of demon rabbit thing, Don is the one thing he and his wife and friends can all fear. The guy just won’t go away, and the longer he stays, the more unhinged he grows.
That wouldn’t be enough if the rest of the movie around it didn’t rise to the occasion, and Sexy Beast does. The dialogue is like a British version of Quentin Tarantino’s sort of work: edgy with a touch of dark humor. Glazer’s direction does some interesting things with simultaneous storytelling, for example having Don tell how Bass learned about the bank where the story cuts from Don to the person who told him to Bass and then back again, lines getting repeated all the while as Gal listens in. As for Winstone, Gal is arguably a thankless role compared to Don and Bass–I think everyone more or less knows by now that McShane can play a good psycho himself–but as a guy who really doesn’t want to get involved and just wants to live a quiet life, he’s fine. But really, this movie essentially boils down to Kingsley’s performance and Glazer’s direction. Between those two, this one is really worth a watch.
Grade: B+
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