Sexy Beast
It’s not really all that unprecedented for a given movie to have a bland, boring plot that’s been done many times before, but to still have it stand out almost due solely to the fact that one of the usual, basic characters in such a story actually turns out to be written and acted in such a way (and in a way far different than what’s been seen before) that the over the top, wild card element that the performance brings to the table gives off the vibe that the movie itself is really a lot better than it actually is. That would be the case here with this 2000 release, one which utilizes the tried and true “retired criminal is lured out of retirement for one last job” template and then injects it with a bolt of electricity in the casting of Ben Kingsley (already a Best Actor Oscar Winner for Gandhi who scored a nomination here for Best Supporting Actor) as Don Logan, a British gangster sent to Spain to lure a retired safecracker back for one more go around. The opening scenes where we meet the safecracker are as bland as could be. As played by Ray Winstone, he is a rather uninteresting layabout sort, sporting a pot belly and a hideous tan while living in a villa with his trophy wife (whom we find out had been a porn star) and spending his evenings attending social gatherings with another couple of longtime friends who are also married. As wildly unexciting as his life is, Winstone still prefers it to prison life or the high stakes London criminal underworld from whence he came. Then one night at dinner, his best friend’s wife reveals that she had just gotten a call inquiring about using Winstone’s services for the first time in nine years. Worse, it is revealed that the call came from Kingsley’s Logan himself personally and that he is boarding the next available flight to come out there to speak to Winstone face to face. The pall that this news casts over the four friends is downright palpable with the indication quickly being made by his friends that if Winstone were to turn down Kingsley’s offer, then he’ll surely be killed right there on the spot. This short yet intense buildup is what leads to Kingsley’s entrance into the film, sporting a shaved head and what seems to be a trademark affinity for buttoned, collared white shirts. The initial sitdown meet and greet with Winstone and his friends is marked by the obvious fear which they all have for him, but the fascinating thing happens when Winstone and Kingsley are finally left alone to discuss the heist. While it is heavily hinted that Kingsley is a very violent man (and probably is), it is soon revealed that his greatest weapon is actually in the use of several unnerving psychological tactics (much of which is built upon his knowing their fear of him) during what otherwise would be friendly, casual conversation, turning Winstone’s own words against him and almost daring him to say something that Kingsley would find offensive or disrespectful. As acted dynamically by Kingsley, his Don Logan would appear to have some deeply embedded mental health issues himself, up to and including possibly bipolar or even autism in his single minded intensity to just bully Winstone into agreeing to take the job. The job itself is only slightly original: ripping off a seemingly highly impenetrable room full of safety deposit boxes containing some of the most valuable items in London, a job that Winstone is expected to perform using scuba gear as the plan is to have the room flooded so that the high tech security system is deactivated thus making the loot easier to grab. But since Winstone has been building up the nerve to tell Kingsley “no” to his face, this only serves to make Kingsley even more agitated, leading to him talking more openly about Winstone’s wife’s porno movie past as well as a past sexual relationship which he had with the best friend’s wife as well. One even starts to wonder whether the bosses back in London even care at all if Winstone is brought in (provided that they have another qualified safecracker whom they can use) and that Kingsley’s growing discontent is actually based upon him promising the bosses that he would land Winstone for the gig and he doesn’t want to be embarrassed by coming back empty handed. Reportedly the other cast members were so fearful of Kingsley’s intensity on set that the nervous, fearful, reactions to his character were all said to be genuine. Soon Kingsley is spouting off even more inappropriate comments about the characters again while always knowing that their innate fear of him keeps him safe. And then when even that doesn’t seem to work he ratchets it up to using threats of violence. While the fact that over 2/3rds of the movie is centered around this battle of wills between Winstone and Kingsley (even as Winstone spends much of his screentime with a sorrowful look on his face as if he’s going to cry) over the matter of doing that “one last job” might make it seem like a turnoff to some people, we also start to see that much of Kingsley’s behavior can almost be construed as childish (not to mention psychotically abnormal) while Winstone and his friends come off as being much more well adjusted and actually NORMAL, even as the film sometimes seems to be implying that Kingsley’s behavior can be considered “normal” in the brutal world of underground London gangsters which explains why Winstone is so reluctant to be a part of it again since he has been disconnected from it for so long that his own behavior has become so much more civilized since then. But again, making the “convincing” aspect of the story into the actual central conflict truly belies the fact that the story itself is really just that wafer thin despite all of Kingsley’s wild theatrics. At least in the later parts of the film we get Ian McShane (in the role that singlehandedly put him on the map) coming oh so close to stealing the movie as the greasy yet powerful big boss who has planned the whole caper bringing his own intensity to the table even as it fails to match Kingsley’s ferocity. But in the end it is Winstone’s character with his passively charmed current existence which he doesn’t want to give up that fails to connect to the viewer, so much so that Kingley’s continuous needling and mocking of him actually brings more smiles and belly laughs than it probably should at the expense of the film’s protagonist. At times, we even start to wonder exactly why Winstone should be so afraid of just doing the actual job itself, it being that it would only require him to go back to London for a couple of days and that most of the extensive planning and preparation has already been completed prior to his involvement. In fact, one could almost emphasize with Kingsley’s frustration over Winstone’s reluctance instead of vice versa since there’s obviously still a big payday being promised for his limited involvement and it also goes without saying that everybody who is in on it would be taking on an equal risk. But if that were the case then we wouldn’t have any kind of a movie at all and not be able to enjoy Kingsley’s mostly verbal assaults on Winstone, his wife and his friends as he brutally castigates them (with frequent use of the “C” word) for thinking that they can just live out the rest of their lives in paradise without giving back or paying any mind to the people who are still back in London busting their asses to pull off major crimes like this one especially with the implication being that Winstone’s perfect retirement plan was only possible through the efforts of people like Kingsley. Now, if one thinks that a simple premise like this alone is enough to sustain a whole entire movie (and Kingsley admittedly does everything he can to keep the viewer into the story), then there might be quite a bit of enjoyment to be had here, but it doesn’t change the fact that without Kingsley’s powerhouse performance, then there really is no movie to speak of here at all, just the sight of the Winstone character constantly agonizing over just why he should be forced into doing one more job that could result in either his death or incarceration without there even being anything remotely relatable to the viewer, clearly making a case about how just one acclaimed actor with a take no prisoners approach to his role can elevate a film so much so that the film itself manages to seem like a considerably higher quality product than it has any right to be…
7/10