Review of Gangster No. 1 (2000) by Bonnie I — 23 Dec 2007

For a movie I hadn't planned on watching, in actual fact hadn't even heard of and that just happened to be on television I found this to be quite enjoyable. Basically about the rise and fall of an English gangster it's told by starting off in "present" time to going back to the 60's when it all started basically. I think Paul Bettany as the younger version of the main character was great. He did really well at playing such a narcissistic deranged character and I mean deranged. Right down to the facial expressions. The older version played by Malcolm McDowell I don't think was as good which bothers me in a story like that. I feel that when a movie goes from present to past to present again with different actors playing the same character the performances should be matched and although McDowell did do a fairly good performance I don't think it was matched. Didn't take away from the movie though.

The main problem I had with the movie was David Thewlis who I usually like as an actor, don't get me wrong though he was good it's just his accent. I realise this is a British film and he is British but he had to put on a rougher accent (with bad grammar, the whole shortening of the sentences and such) which in my opinion he couldn't keep up and kept breaking from it. Something I kept noticing far too much.

I also would've like the movie to explore with more depth the deranged main character and his obsession.

Other then that a great little movie that I'm rather happy I was able to watch.