Review

Review Date: 5-June-05
Spoiler Rating: Low
Juju Judgment: Just OK

Layer Cake (2005)

I suppose it's a compliment to director Matthew Vaughn and star Daniel Craig that I only understood about 65 percent of "Layer Cake" but still kind of liked it (especially considering that I don't find criminals inherently interesting, as I have mentioned before). This is one of those twisty, turny underworld flicks where you're never fully sure who's doing what to whom and why, so you just hang on to the central character and go along for the ride. Here, that character is an efficient, basically decent middleman in the drug-trafficking business who wants to make one last score and retire with his health and bank account intact. Thus he's like every other sympathetic criminal on film, but he apparently doesn't go to the movies much himself since he seems shell-shocked when his plans go awry. Flanked by cronies (Colm Meaney, George Harris) and watched over by superiors (Kenneth Cranham, Michael Gambon), he tries to maneuver a growing number of difficulties including a missing girl, a Serbian hit man, and a load of ill-gotten Ecstasy. In so doing, he takes the viewer on a tour of the dingy flats of addicts, the violent haunts of his fellows, and the posh clubs of drug lords: a layered slice of society that's anything but sweet.

Although you always have to wonder in such films why the hero expects anything good to come from his line of work, Craig projects the right mix of professionalism and desperation to keep you in his corner until the last hand of fate is played. His appeal is backed by Vaughn's direction, which emphasizes the cool of the milieu over its seediness and props up scenes that don't make much sense (like a sudden bout of rage in a coffee shop) with a certain visual interest. The only really gratuitous moments are those involving Sienna Miller as the token love interest, an embarrassingly worthless role even for an aspiring actress. One can only wish that her part was cut and the murky script had more substance; in a better film, an engaging lead performance and stylized presentation would be icing on the cake.

Copyright © 2005 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.