Hard-boiled toughs, gorgeous babes and an eminently watchable urbane drug lord inhabit a London underground that crackles with excitement in Matthew Vaughn’s rousing directorial debut. Having cut his teeth producing Guy Ritchie’s campy British gangster films “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and “Snatch,” Vaughn bests his former partner’s efforts with a film that is hipper, smarter and boasts a more interesting cast of characters. “Layer Cake” doesn’t seek to reinvent the new-mafia crime genre defined by great films such as “The Limey” and “Sexy Beast,” but it succeeds in polishing it up a little bit.
Daniel Craig affects McQueen-esque cool as a dashing, nameless drug kingpin who sees little difference between the drug business and other lucrative, more legally defensible ventures. He wants out, but his supplier (Kenneth Cranham) — the icing on the cake in the criminal caste system — has other plans: Craig is to sell off a large supply of ecstasy stolen from a band of ruthless Serbs, while tracking down the strung-out daughter of a well-heeled muscleman named Eddie Temple (the magnificent Michael Gambon). Things aren’t what they seem — they never are in these seedy circles — and Craig’s character quickly becomes a marked man. As he desperately scrambles to try and save his skin and maybe add a few quid to his suddenly depleted coffers, our man gets a lift from a sexy siren played by Sienna Miller. Brit theater veteran George Harris and Colm Meaney (“Mystery, Alaska”) deliver strong supporting performances. (Rated R for strong brutal violence, sexuality, nudity, pervasive language and drug use. Running time: 104 minutes)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 13, 2005. Read the original PDF.