THE BAKER
UK, 2007, 85 minutes, Colour.
Damian Lewis, Kate Ashfield, Nikolaj Coster- Waldau, Michael Gambon.
Directed by Gareth Lewis.
Just as they used to say that there were a lot of ‘quirky’ little Australian comedies, so there are quite a lot of small-budget, sometimes hit-and-miss, British comedies. This one is set in Wales.
When 30 year old hit man (Damian Lewis) lets a target live because he feels he needs a change of outlook and job, his mentor (Michael Gambon) sends him to an undercover destination in Wales. He is to lodge as the new local baker. All might have gone well if the local arms nerd hadn’t discovered the baker’s cache of guns and if news hadn’t travelled round the town in an instant, the baker might have taken a second chance on life.
Naturally, he falls in love with the local vet (Kate Ashfield) but, less naturally, most of the villagers have someone in mind that they would like to get rid of and, thinking you ordered a hit by ordering a chocolate cake for their target, they set off a chain reaction. It becomes more complicated when a rival hitman who feels emotionally jilted by the baker also turns up to provide a violent climax – which, being the quirky comedy it is – is turned into a mini-farce with the medieval re-enactment team coming to the rescue.
Just one of those light under 90-minute entertainments with touches of black comedy that will be a hit for some and others won’t mind missing.
1.A quirky comedy? Short running time? Local interest? British humour?
2.The London settings, the assassination attempts? The contrast with the Welsh countryside, the Welsh town, the homes, the shops? Authentic atmosphere? Score?
3.The title, the ironies? Milo wanting to be a baker? Eggs and the townspeople thinking him as the hitman with the code name The Baker?
4.The opening, Milo and the assassination attempt, his deciding not to kill? Bjorn and his killing the victim? Their confrontation? Bjorn and his antagonism? Milo and the firm? Bjorn and the personal involvement, being abandoned in Amsterdam, his love for Milo? His motivation?
5.Milo, discussions with Leo, the cover in the Welsh town? The bakery? The irony of Bjorn getting the photos, seeing the fish shop, going around the countryside, the assassinations of fish shop owners? Finally arriving in the village?
6.Milo, the arrival, the townspeople and the historical re-enactments? Rhys and his friends in the bar? The welcome to Milo? Accommodation? His burying his suitcase with guns in the field? Eggs seeing him? Finding the gun? Knowing what was happening, thinking The Baker was a code name, telling all the people, the gossip round the town?
7.Milo, trying to fit in, the awkwardness, the cookbook, baking, his success, enjoying it, feeling free? The encounter with Rhiannon, the attraction, meetings, the dates? The various people in the town, his chocolate cakes, Mr Edwards and his putting in the order, the death of his wife, the further orders for cakes, Milo acting in all innocence? Eggs and his confrontation to kill the man? Milo and his reaction? The date with Rhiannon, her overhearing his talking with Eggs? Her disgust? Bjorn's arrival, the confrontation, the abduction of Rhiannon, the fight, swords, sticks, fists? The arrival of the re-enactment troupe led by Rhys? Supporting Milo? His staying to be their baker? His belief in second chances? His final discussion with Leo? The opening of the shop with Rhiannon?
8.Rhiannon, the vet, encounters with Milo, attraction, her work in the town, the date, the sexual encounter, overhearing the truth, her reaction, being abducted, the happy reunion, her forgiving him?
9.The people in the town, Rhys and the bar, singing? Mr Edwards, put upon by his wife? Wanting her killed? Her pushiness, the toaster and her death? The townspeople assuming that it was the work of the hitman? The neighbours destroying each other's flowers and garden gnomes? The other members of the town? The old man and his nagging wife? All ordering chocolate cakes? Being confronted, their nastiness, Eggs telling them off? Their final support of Milo and welcoming him to the town?
10.Eggs, the nerdish young man, making bombs, exploding the sheep, seeing the suitcase, getting the gun, his assumptions? His being sacked from his job? Paranoia? Working for Milo? Their ambiguous conversations, his hitman interpretations? His going to do the hit, his inability to do it? His relief that the man wasn't dead? His future?
11.The popularity of this kind of quirky little comedy?
