Review of 44 Inch Chest (2009) by Antony D — 16 Jan 2010

When the wife of a jealous 'gangster' (Ray Winstone) leaves him for a young French waiter, he completely falls apart. Like a true gangster he beats the hell out of his wife (Joanne Whalley), gets his underworld mates to kidnap her lover, then spends the rest of the film staring at him wondering whether to kill him or not. And then going a bit mental.

It sets itself up as a black comedy, but the tone does shift about somewhat uncomfortably by the final third of the film. The thespians have a field day with the script, though. Winstone blubs & sweats his way through a terrific performance, as does John Hurt as the old bitter crank 'Peanut'. But it doesn't seem to go anywhere. The angst seems wasted. Most of the action takes place in a grubby room & an adjoining corridor and while we do occasionally get flashbacks, they don't go very far in taking the story to a different level, or giving much insight about the characters in the room. So what happens? Well, not very much. Just a few old blokes shouting the word c**t for the umpteenth time, and while there are one or two laughs to be had, even the talents of this great cast can't wring many more sniggers out of it .

This looks like one of those slightly pretentious stage plays that should have got no further than the West End. It doesn't work on the big screen, despite such a talented cast.