ROCKNROLLA

UK, 2008, 114 minutes, Colour.
Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, Thandie Newton, Mark Strong, Idris Elba, Tom Hardy, Karel Roden, Toby Kebbell, Jimi Mistry, Geoff Bell, Matt King, Jeremy Piven, Chris Bridges, Gemma Arterton.
Directed by Guy Ritchie.

Guy Richie's name has become synonymous with with tough British gangster movies: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch and Revolver. The flavour of the month a decade ago, he has not been the flavour for many a month or year since. Accused of repetition, lack of imagination, the substitution of visual flair for style, he is targeted by British critics. However, this kind of thing is what he does best and this is as good an example of his film-making as any.

This time he also has a more upmarket cast. Tom Wilkinson plays a gangster chief, full of his own pretentions, imagining that he is cleverer and more powerful than he really is. Mark Strong is effective as his chief adviser. They get themselves into complicated deals with Russians with their new money, each side depending on the other to get permits to build a sports stadium. Jimi Mistry is the less than upright lawyer who usually makes things work.

But there are other players as well. There is the local gang, led by Gerard Butler, who also fancy themselves as smarter than they think. They are being used by a classy accountant for the Russians (Thandie Newton) to hold up the money couriers, stealing the Russian cash payments en route to the gangsters. The Russian entrepreneur has a good luck painting which he lends to the Brits – but it is stolen by the boss's spoilt, addict-musician adopted son. The father puts pressure on two American club owners who work with the son to find him and the painting.

There is all that intrigue, complications, double-dealing to follow and for all the threads to be untangled. Since there is a key element foreshadowed but unexpected, then the climax is not quite as we might have imagined.

Rocknrolla is probably the second best Ritchie thriller, after Lock, Stock...

1.Guy Ritchie and his gangster films? The downmarket thugs, the upmarket gangsters? Gangsters in London? Eastern Europeans?

2.The London settings, a gritty city, the haunts of the gangsters, the pubs, the bars, the clubs? Homes? The wealthy? The world of rock music? The money deals, the public interest in sporting structures? A contemporary tone?

3.The title, the bosses and the thugs, rock ‘n roll, the score, the range of songs?

4.The various stories, different characters, their interlinking and intercutting?

5.The overview of the informer, putting people in prison, exercising power, the law and the final revelation of who the traitor was?

6.Lenny, Tom Wilkinson’s style, appearance, manner, speech? His wealth, debts to him? Archie as his right-hand man, lieutenant? Style? Uri and the deals with the Russians? Money owed, money robbed? His son Johnny, the memories of the past, his sending him to boarding school? Johnny and his rock ‘n roll friends? Archie and the standover tactics to find Johnny? Uri and his painting, giving it to Lenny for good luck, its being stolen? The minor thugs, One Two, Mumbles and the others? The confrontation with Lenny, Uri breaking his legs? Archie and the truth? Lenny’s death? The portrait of a gangster and his presumptions?

7.One Two, Mumbles, Handsome Bob? The Wild Bunch? Their owing money to Lenny? Being thieves? The members of the wider group? The various types, their meetings and discussions? Meeting Stella, flirting with One Two, the deal, the set-up to rob Uri? One Two and Stella and their relationships? The second robbery attempt? The relationship with Johnny? Handsome Bob and his flirting? The dance, the effect on One Two, the friends taunting him?

8.Archie, a strong personality, the second-in-charge, his years in prison, an arranger, standing over? The way that Lenny treated him? Finding Johnny, getting the rock ‘n Roll managers to help? His place in the flashbacks about Johnny’s life? Relationship with One Two and the gang? The discovery of the truth, killing Lenny? His future? Reconciliation with Johnny?

9.Stella as accountant, the law, her social status, her company? Her flirting with One Two, the party, dancing? Using him? Watching the robberies? Setting up the second robbery? The discovery, Uri’s threats?

10.Bertie, the law, shady, the plans for building, the money-changing, pressures on local politics, helping Lenny – and then refusing?

11.Johnny, his background, adopted, at home with Lenny, going to boarding school, his misbehaviour, the deals, his love for music? Drugs, Gothic look, the band, his stealing the painting? The managers? Archie searching for him? The dangers and threats? Johnny and the painting? Archie and his friendship? Johnny and his cleaning up?

12.Uri and the Russian thugs, issues of money, deals, buildings, the eastern European background? Their being robbed? Stella and her being threatened? The thugs and the threats to the Wild Bunch? Uri and Lenny, the painting, the guns, the violence, breaking Lenny’s legs? The final shootout?

13.The Wild Bunch, the search for the snitch, the group of lowlifes and their behaviour?

14.The film made with flair, style, the world of gangsters, the build-up and the final shootout?