LAYER CAKE

It's a pity that EON Productions, keepers of the 007 franchise, couldn't line up Layer Cake director Matthew Vaughn to helm the forthcoming James Bond thriller Casino Royale, as they were reportedly trying to do. Layer Cake is an engrossing, stylish, beautifully shot gangster thriller refreshingly free of the postmodern self-devouring serpents of hip irony that threaten to drag down other modern crime dramas like Snatch.


An excellent cast helps. Current 007 Daniel Craig proves he has the dramatic chops to shoulder a lead role. As the unnamed protagonist, billed as XXXX, Craig essays a smart, cautious, professional drug dealer. At the beginning of the film he calmly explains his formula for success: always pay your supplier on time. The supplier, Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham), asks XXXX for a favour. Price wants him to find the daughter of another crime kingpin and also arranges a deal between him and Duke (Jamie Forman), a loud, obnoxious gangster wannabe who stole a large amount of ecstasy pills from some very bad people. Neither assignment is particularly favourable to XXXX, and the combination kicks him into a complicated tailspin.

The plot gives the term "labyrinthine" a bad name. Subplots fold within flashbacks within replays of previous action. Truth be told, the screenplay could have been trimmed or simplified, and characters could have been cut, without losing the core narrative. But when the film is as stylishly shot as this, it's easier to forgive the overwritten story.

Gliding around and into the action, Vaughn's camera effortlessly tracks its way through the characters and events, connecting places and faces in interesting ways. A move in/pull out on Craig's face as a scene transition is one of the more memorable cinematic tricks. Another well-filmed and edited sequence involves a brutal beating in a cafe. Several scenes are punctuated by sudden shocks, which imparts an edginess and capriciousness to much of the film. Admittedly a bit too stylish for its own good, Layer Cake is nevertheless often constructed in the vein of a Scorcese crime drama, and if that's your cup of tea, then the film is engrossing and enjoyable. The superb ensemble cast also includes the ever-reliable Colm Meaney, who gives the impression of a veteran criminal mind from just one glance.

The DVD of Layer Cake contains a superb anamorphic transfer of the 2.35:1 ratio film, which showcases the gorgeous colours of the cinematography. Extras are minimal.