I don’t know quite what I was thinking when I went to see this film as it is full of everything I personally hate. Low-life gangsters. Drugs. Violence. Liberal use of ‘pussy’ and the c-word, which I loathe so much I cannot say it myself. My son, when he was little, once overheard it somewhere and asked me what it meant and I said it was a sort of German bundt cake, but crispier, and for years I lived in terror he would be presented with a German bundt, but crispier, and exclaim, ‘Wow, great c-word!’ — but this isn’t about the film, is it?
So, the film. Yes, it’s full of everything I personally hate but this does not, necessarily, make it a hateful film. It is well acted. It turns the same old, same old gangster thriller screws, but with a fine eye for tension and keeping the audience emotionally involved. I’ve yet to wholeheartedly sell it to myself but if you like, say, Guy Ritchie’s early work, and that sort of thing, it will probably do the business. .
Set in London, this is a remake of the 1996 Danish original by Nicolas Winding Refn, although as I haven’t seen the Danish original by Nicolas Winding Refn, I can’t say this isn’t as good. However, if I had seen the Danish original, I’m sure I would, as that is the way. Whatever, the story follows small-time dealer Frank (Richard Coyle) over a week in which the world seems to have turned against him. Deep in debt, he fixes up a deal involving his pal Tony (Bronson Webb) and the Balkan crime lord Milo (Zlatko Buric). But the exchange is a police bust, and Frank loses both the cash and the merchandise, and unless he can appease Milo asap, he’s basically dead meat.
Directed by Luis Prieto, this takes a while to get going, with far too many pounding nightclub scenes during the first half, but I suppose the characters must be established, including Frank’s girlfriend, Flo. Flo is played by the gloriously leggy and fantastically beautiful supermodel Agyness Deyn. Flo is sad and sweet and loves Frank. She is also a junkie and lap-dancer, and the trouble with a supermodel playing a junkie and lap-dancer is you wonder why no one has yet to tap her on the shoulder and say, ‘Why not become a supermodel, love? Better pay, better conditions and all the free Mulberry handbags you can shake a stick at.’ Ms Deyn may be the finest actress the world has ever known (aside from my friend Meryl, that is) but just can’t be convincing in a role such as this. A thing of beauty may well be a joy for ever, but as a lap-dancer in a seedy club? Never.
However, Coyle’s performance is at the heart of this, and Coyle certainly pulls it off. Frank beats Tony to a pulp when he believes he has been betrayed, and participates in the roughing up of an old man — look away! Look away! — yet Coyle never leaves human bounds or entirely forsakes the audience’s sympathies. The scene where he begs for money from his mother, whom he obviously hasn’t bothered to contact for years, is particularly heartbreaking. His scenes with Flo, with whom he is unable to establish intimacy — he cannot break free of his own loneliness — are also moving.
Coyle brings to the part an existential angst and vulnerability which may well put this flick above others of the genre, but when it comes to scene-stealing, this is Buric’s film. As Milo, he is marvellous. Milo is both superlatively chummy and superlatively merciless. One minute he’s embracing you as the best person ever — ‘you are like a son to me, Frank’ — and the next he is electrocuting your nipples. (I think that’s what he did; look away! Look away!)
The direction in the second half becomes increasingly fast, restless and desperate, as befits a ticking-clock film, with some interesting, juddery visuals, but ultimately it’s what I call a ‘cup of tea’ film. If it is your ‘cup of tea’, you will like it. And if it isn’t your ‘cup of tea’ you’re probably best off skipping it, even if it’s a small-time gangster film of some quality. So this is what you must ask yourself: is it my cup of tea? And this is all I ask of you.
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