Review of Layer Cake (2004) by Robert L — 14 Sep 2009

Denial Craig is a successful and respected cocaine dealer in the middle of London. And he is planning to get out, very soon. However his boss Jimmy Price (Kenneth Craham) has other plans, handing down not one, but two very important and complex jobs for Craig to take care of for him.

This is this performance that put Craig into being the new James Bond. He is sharp, refined, sophisticated and at all times remains composed. Even in a world populated with sleaze and drugs Craig still looks clean. It? s his star creating performance, and he deserves it. But then that?s Layer Cake in a nutshell. It gives you want you want and what you deserve. In Layer Cake there are no good guys. Everyone is a bad guy, however there are main characters and non main characters, loyal and treacherous characters. Everyone has morals from Craig himself, who is a cocaine dealer and hates guns. All the way down to The Duke (Jamie Foreman), the lowest of low of gangsters, The Duke seem to hate his girlfriend but will not let any harm come to her. It?s this sort of depth and variety in characters that is one of Layer Cakes greatest assist.

Not since Trainspotting has there been such a film that says to the rest of the world, Rule Britannia. This isn?t like other British gangster movies, just like Trainspotting wasn?t like British movies at all. Layer Cake, at minim redefines the genre it is put in and at best creates a whole new one of its own. At appose to most gangster films since the Godfather they all have parts or moments where it clichéd. But not in Layer Cake. Layer Cake is fresh like hand picked strawberries just as they are ripening for the entire film.

The cast are (as I have alluded to previously) brilliant, everyone is acting their roles as if it?s just their real life. Craig is ultra cool, Sienna Miller is ultra sexy, George Harris is ultra loyal And Michael Gambon is just?..ultra. I defy anyone not to personally cheer (at least in there minds) when Gambon finally enters.

A comment worth making about Layer Cake (and I don?t point this out often) is that the soundtrack is phenomenal. Suiting the film perfectly, it could be the best soundtrack I?ve ever heard. In my top 5 with ease. It is not often you stop watching the film for a few moments and think ?Wow this music is amazing!? the film matches it like an identical twin.

Layer Cake as easily enough in the film to make even the casual viewer come back for more. From the very opening when Hayling by FC Kahuna plays and you hear the calming waves of Denial Craig?s voice resist the first lines of the film as if they are poetry, like a sea lapping genially against a shore.

This is a ganger thriller with a shocking amount of intensity and a shotgun full of class. See this film.