Layer Cake - A middle class Guy Ritchie film

Yes, Britain is famous for its classic and gritty gangster films (but then it’s also got its fair share of pretty mundane and forgettable ones, too).  Guy Ritchie made his name showing us the exploits of his working class (anti) heroes and, for a while, it seemed like every film was about the ‘rougher’ element from London.  Then came Layer Cake.  And, briefly, Ritchie’s name was associated with it.  You can see why.  It does share certain traits of one of his films – gangsters, multiple plotlines and characters and, of course, the violence and double crossing. 

But, once you start watching it, you soon see that it’s not just a poor clone, but something all of its own entirely.  A pre-Bond Daniel Craig stars as the main character (of whom we deliberately never learn his name!) who is a class A drugs dealer, only not the type to hang round on dodgy street corners.  He just produces the stuff for others to supply and snort, therefore he can tell himself (and us, the audience) that he’s more of a respectable type of criminal.

And, he’s so respectable, that he’s basically thinking of quitting the whole business (now that he’s made his millions of course).  Sadly, a very large spanner is thrown in his works when the local kingpin decides to utilise his services to find the missing daughter of a colleague.  Now, this hardly fits in with Craig’s usual skillsets, but then that’s the point.  It’s all a bit too out of the blue to be above board.  And, what follows is a chain reaction that leads to the afore-mentioned violence and double crossing.

It’s one of those films that you can’t really have on in the background.  You’ll need to watch it.  There are numerous characters who you’ll need to keep track of so you can follow who’s working for who and therefore who’s about to stab who in the back.  If you like your ‘Richie-style’ films then you should love this.  Daniel Craig is excellent in the lead role (better than he is in Bond in my humble opinion) and the supporting cast all play their parts well.  You’ll only get the one chance to watch it through without knowing what’s going to happen and I advice you sit down and spend some time getting to grips with it.

Plus it’s got a great soundtrack and Sienna Miller in – arguably – her finest role to date (*rolls eyes*).

9/10 almost as perfect as The Godfather