This was something of a sleeper hit and you can understand why it wasn't an overnight success on its release in 2004 . " Goodness me another Brit flick featuring gangsters haven't seen one of those since the last British film was released £ . Come to think of it that's what everyone in Britain would have said in 2003 , 2002 and well what year was LOCK STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS released ? That said LAYER CAKE sticks out from the Guy Ritchie clones because of its leading man and its director with Daniel Craig and Mathew Vaughn going on to bigger and better things . Deservedly I might I add and for the most part LAYER CAKE is superb but then like so many British films it falls apart. The cake obviously needed a bit more foundation in its making
It does get off to a great start where Craig's nameless anti-hero recounts his life of crime and right away it has social relevance as he makes a very cogent and simple point that drugs are bad but the criminalisation of drugs is much worse . This intelligent thinking is complimented by the use of intelligent language of cinema . All too often a British movie looks like it's made for television but despite having a relatively low budget Vaughn lays on an eye catching visual style that hypnotises the audience as we're told a tale involving a drug heist going wrong , Serbian war criminals on the rampage and a man who is willing to pay anything to find his missing daughter
So far so good but as stated like so many and too many films from Britain the first half can't keep up with the second half . As soon as Michael Gambon's posh gangster turns up the film starts to meander all over the place . Looking at the trivia section it says that JJ Connoly's novel was 344 pages long whilst his original draft of the screenplay was 404 pages so he effectively wrote the screenplay for a film lasting 404 minutes and has had to ditch half of it . This explains the unsatisfactory nature of the narrative and aspects involving characters and plot turns appear and disappear for no reason . The screenplay is if not a mess then at least over complicated to say the least
What stops the film being ruined by it - and which why it was a success with the critics who'd no doubt seen too many of these type of Brit gangster flicks - is that the audience will be swept up by the visual style of the film and its lead actor . It'd be very easy to say that it's style over substance and to be honest that's what it is . However the directing , editing and musical score is so good that all the flaws with the story telling can be instantly forgiven and forgotten
It does get off to a great start where Craig's nameless anti-hero recounts his life of crime and right away it has social relevance as he makes a very cogent and simple point that drugs are bad but the criminalisation of drugs is much worse . This intelligent thinking is complimented by the use of intelligent language of cinema . All too often a British movie looks like it's made for television but despite having a relatively low budget Vaughn lays on an eye catching visual style that hypnotises the audience as we're told a tale involving a drug heist going wrong , Serbian war criminals on the rampage and a man who is willing to pay anything to find his missing daughter
So far so good but as stated like so many and too many films from Britain the first half can't keep up with the second half . As soon as Michael Gambon's posh gangster turns up the film starts to meander all over the place . Looking at the trivia section it says that JJ Connoly's novel was 344 pages long whilst his original draft of the screenplay was 404 pages so he effectively wrote the screenplay for a film lasting 404 minutes and has had to ditch half of it . This explains the unsatisfactory nature of the narrative and aspects involving characters and plot turns appear and disappear for no reason . The screenplay is if not a mess then at least over complicated to say the least
What stops the film being ruined by it - and which why it was a success with the critics who'd no doubt seen too many of these type of Brit gangster flicks - is that the audience will be swept up by the visual style of the film and its lead actor . It'd be very easy to say that it's style over substance and to be honest that's what it is . However the directing , editing and musical score is so good that all the flaws with the story telling can be instantly forgiven and forgotten