Review of Sexy Beast (2001) by Ankur D — 03 Sep 2012

Sexy Beast.

Playing more with style rather than substance, Sexy Beast, plummets itself into mediocrity-at-best from beginning to end. Jonathan Glazer known for his work in music videos from bands such as Massive Attack, Radiohead, UNKLE, etc brings his hyper kinetic visual style, while putting plot, story, and interesting characters on the sidelines. Beast seems to drag on towards the end and is too busy looking in the mirror to realize that it's a non-coherent story muddled with bland, beside Don Logan, one dimensional characters. However Ben Kingsley shines as the borderline sociopath wreck of a human named Don Logan, but the shine only comes from being a diamond in the rut.

Out of the business for good Gary "Gal" Dove (Ray Winstone) enjoys sun baths beside by his swimming pool in his villa in Spain. His life is a happy one; he hangs out with his best buddies Aitch and Jackie spending time with them during barbeques, dinners, and hunting while his beloved wife DeeDee stands and smiles beside him. Soon Gal is pulled out of retirement by the ruthless psychopath Don Logan, who from a guy, who knows a guy, who knows another guy, scores a job only worthy enough for a criminal master such as Gal and himself.

Beast being a caper has one of the most original robberies ever put to film, however due to weak characters you never really care for what's happening on screen or whether or not the heist goes wrong or right. Ben Kingsley portrays Don Logan, the foul mouthed underworld recruiter, and he is the one of the two reason to actually watch this movie. He plays Logan with such tenacity and fiery rage it's hard not to hate him yet look away at the same time; it was shocking to see Gandhi break character and spew f-bomb after f-bomb. The second reason you (maybe) want to check out Beast is Jonathan Glazer's direction. He clearly knows what he is doing behind the camera, he knows what kind of film it deserves to be and it shows off, whether it be Gal's nightmares or the caper involving hazy blues, Glazer knows how to keep your attention.

Since Glazer's style and Kingsley's performance are the only features to watch Beast, they only show up in sudden and sporadic moments. Pacing and timing axe the film for growing organically or being a better film, at eighty nine minutes the film drags itself to the end line with absolutely zero pay off, the heist scene stays with the film for about a mere five minutes, while Kingsley stays on screen for twenty minutes. Glazer mishaps the pacing as it moves from slow to fast in an abrupt manner which hinders the flow and makes it noticeable, the rest of the cast (Winstone and Ian McShane) never seem to show more than the one side of their respective character and Glazer never makes the effort at even hinting subtlety. Indebted to it's, feel and look, and single performance Sexy Beast raises itself slightly above mediocre.

4.9/10.