LAYER CAKE
UK, 2004, minutes, Colour
Daniel Craig, Colm Meaney, Kenneth Cranham, Jamie Foreman, Sally Hawkins, Michael Gambon, Dexter Fletcher, Tom Hardy, Tamar Hassan, Burn Gorman, Ben Whishaw, George Harris, Sienna Miller, Jason Flemyng.
Directed by Matthew Vaughan.
Matthew Vaughan was the producer of the tongue-in-cheek gangster films, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. The anticipation was that Layer Cake would be a similar knockabout gangster actioner with some razzle-dazzle stylistic touches. No, on all counts. Rather, it is a smooth and well-crafted production with a script that has its satiric moments but is ultimately a rather serious show.
Daniel Craig immediately introduces us to himself. He is the self-made drug dealer, a man about town, who is 105 made his pile and is about to leave the business prosperously. He seems to be offering the handbook for the successful, respectable criminal. And we tend to believe him.
But, life is not like that, especially amongst British gangsters. The crime world is a layer cake and you had better remember which layer you belong to. There are the local bosses, nouveau riche types who bring their working class manners and violence to their new place in society. Kenneth Cranham is expert at playing this kind of role and is very persuasive here. There are the lower class idiots who presume that they belong to higher levels, do deals, act precipitately and violently, get everyone entangled in their mess and are quickly dead. Jamie Foreman portrays one of these.
Then there are the local equivalents of the consigliere who are in the background, do a quiet killing or two, act as brokers in drug deals and who live in unobtrusive comfort. Colm Meany portrays one of these. At the top are the successfully ruthless who outwit everyone else, no matter layer they come from, and survive. And this is Michael Gambon.
Put it all together, plus some emotional complications which play havoc with plans, and you have Layer Cake, one of the best British gangster films.
1. The strong reputation of the of this British gangster film? In the old style? Transition in the 1990s, with more modern style?
2. The title, Temple and his explanation? The gangster world, the hierarchy, the different levels and layers and people’s position in them?
3. Daniel Craig, as the centre of the film, his voiceover, no name for his identification? The portrait, and identity?
4. His explanation of his life, character, his really having no personal life? Drug dealing, a middleman? The cover as an estate agent? His troupe: Morty, Clarky, Terry? Travelling together, in the car? The talk? Morty and his time in prison, the reasons, explained later? The situation with Duke, his ecstasy pills? Amsterdam? Duke and Slasher? The visit, the confrontation, Slasher and her hysterics? The discussions of the deal? The contacts in the north? Going to visit them, the commission to find Temple’s daughter? Deals and not? The central character and his relationship with Jimmy, the role of Gene? Coming at summons, the expensive restaurant, the meal, the discussion, Jimmy’s proposal, to find Temple’s daughter? Jimmy’s, Paying the bill, abrupt leaving? Giving the contract to the two men, visiting the club, his attraction to the girl? His moving easily through these layers?
5. Jimmy and Gene, the team, the deals, Jimmy and his superiority, at the lunch? The job? Gene and the various situations, friendship with the central character, the interview with Duke? The relationship with Temple?
6. The story of Larry, the flashback to the club, the young man and the suicide, the game, tensions? Homosexual overtones? Larry and his being killed, by Gene? Explanations?
7. The Serbs, the drugs, the hit IPmen, the harsh dealings, the interactions with Duke, killing him? Duke and his being in the lower league, relationship with Slasher? Slasher, with the gun, Slavo and his taunting her, the man’s sudden arrival, her firing the gun, the killing of Duke and Slasher? The motivation to keep going, Dragon and his being the hit man, shrewdness, following the central character, the hiring of the killer, his reversing of roles and killing the hired man?
8. Eric Temple, his wealth, his daughter and his concern about her, finding her? The set up with Jimmy, his trying to undermine Temple? His range of information, playing the tape that proved that Jimmy was giving information to the police? His praise of the central character, wanting to hire him, but warning him?
9. Jimmy’s death, Gene’s gun, Gene’s being upset, his brutalising the central character, the playing of the tape, his change of attitude? The complication with the ecstasy tablets? Jean and his anger? The plan? Gene as calm, his record of killings, bodies in the freezer?
10. Hiring the assassin, at Greenwich, the setup, the time, the phone call, and the irony of the Serb killing the hired killer?
11. Plan, the meeting, the drugs, police, the disguise, the chase, in the boat, the Serbs believing that the drugs had been taken by the police? Calling off the
pursuit?
12. The group, the payments, using the police and uniforms?
13. Temple, his work and the drugs, offering three million, the delivery, the change of plan?
14. The gift of the membership of the club, his praising of the central character?
15. The lunch, with his gang, the new boss but his not wanting it and walking out?
16. The background of Morty, the man who had betrayed him, on the streets, getting the meal, the cash, Morty’s brutality in killing him?
17. The central character and his flirting with the girl, her coming on to him? Sidney, an underling, his friendship with the girl, ingratiating himself, the girl
coming to the club after the lunch, on the steps?
18. The central character summing up his life, his good fortune, his shrewdness, having listened to the explanation by Eric of the layers? His suddenly being shot by Sidney, an entirely different reason for his killing?
19. A satisfying gangster film?
