Review of Snatch (2000) by Gavin M — 02 Sep 2014

"Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels II: An Extra Barrel"! Man, I heard about Sylvester Stallone having to do a bit of the softcore to get his feet off the ground with his toes curled, but I wouldn't have expected an action star of the caliber of Jason Statham to do a film like this... or for Brad Pitt to show up, well after becoming a huge star. Lame jokes aside, first it was "The Hard Case", then it was "Two Smoking Barrels", and now, we finally come to the conclusion of Guy Ritchie's "Awkward Innuendo-Sounding Title Trilogy". Man, this film is the way to go out, because it is so much better than, at the very least, "Two Smoking Barrels" (What? Someone who hasn't seen "The Hard Case"? I must be crazy!), although I might just prefer this because it brings back fond memories by featuring Brad Pitt doing underground, bare-knuckle boxing. I don't think I'm condemning this film at all when I say that it isn't even slightly worthy of shining the shoes of "Fight Club", but it's still pretty good, although, around the time it got finished, Ritchie married Madonna, so, naturally, Ritchie's streak didn't exactly last. Looking at what happened to Sean Penn, then "Swept Away", I reckon that girl is a plague on the film industry, but, even though this film isn't actually porn, she still deserves a spot somewhere in here, because as much as I am not a fan of "Material Girl", this film shows you that diamonds are not just a girl's best friend. This film deals with diamonds, a four-fingered Benicio del Toro, Irish gypsies, bare-knuckle boxing, pigs eating people, and, oddest of all, black Englishmen, so, at the very least, this film is mighty entertaining, if a little questionably structured.

Running a little over 100 minutes, this film isn't especially long, but it does get excessive from time to time, particularly with, if you will, overdevelopment, anchored by Jason Statham's narration being over-explanatory of the backgrounds of certain themes, plot elements, and characters who are hard enough to juggle as it is, without the divided expository attention. The film follows multiple storylines, all of which converge from one angle or another, yet are distinguished enough for the transitions between them to be jarring, convoluting the focus of what should be a subtly complex, but still rather simple narrative, while still keeping consistent in plaguing the messily juggled characterization with some unlikable attributes. The writing and acting are so good, and the direction is so lively, that you come to embrace the characters through all of their questionable traits, but as a brutally British crime flick, this film features hardly any morally sound and inherently likable characters, whose shenanigans are all too often a little too disturbing to be funny in the vein of a black comedy, no matter how much the film stylistically and comically crackles, up to a point, that is. The pacing of the film is pretty sporadic, and although Guy Ritchie very rarely, if every gets exhaustingly breakneck in his more fast-pace touches, somewhat steadily controlled storytelling is often broken up by a freneticism that, whether it be applied to confusingly snappy dialogue, or applied to flashy plotting, is made all the more distancing by overstyization. The style deserves as much praise as anything in this messy, but insanely entertaining breakthrough and height in stylish British filmmaking, but is sometimes frantic, and often detrimental to a sense of substance that, quite frankly, is lacking to begin with. Like I said, this film's network of stories is subtly complex, but a lot about it is pretty simple, and the film is so well-done and so much fun (Ha-ha, I rhymed) that it could have, at the very least, come to the brink of standing out, but its conceptual simplicity, combined with convolution deriving from unevenly structured, paced and focused storytelling, hold the final product shy of its ambition, maybe even its potential, no matter how limited. Still, this is a very decidedly rewarding film, which, for all of its questionable storytelling and overstylization, entertains wildly with anything from technical and comic proficiency, to one heck of a soundtrack.

John Murphy is one of the more popular score composers in ultra-stylish English cinema, and just as this film started that movement of ultra-stylish English cinema, it broke Murphy out as a go-to man for films of this type, capturing the flashy groove of this frantic, witty piece through a dynamic jazzy style which encompasses elements of avant-garde jazz, Euro, reggae, rock, etc. in order to keep up momentum as original highlights in a soundtrack whose unoriginal tracks include snappy touches of classic and modernist rock, groove, funk, pop, and so on and so forth, that are expertly placed and lively. Much less flashy than, yet about as aesthetically fulfilling as the musical style is the visual style, or at least Tim Maurice-Jones' cinematography, whose distinct, heavy blue palette captures the grit of this grimy crime flick, while crisp lighting puts a little more handsome polish over memorable visuals that are orchestrated by Guy Ritchie. Ritchie, as director, often places style over substance, when he's not abusing it with a hint of freneticism, but his style, as I said, is among the most commendable aspects of this film, whether he be crafting the aforementioned memorable visuals through impeccable framing, or having fun with Simon Hayes' dynamic sound mixing, or playing up the blazingly snappy, perfectly layered debut head editing job of Jon Harris - now one of the best stylish editors in the business - Ritchie delivers on an impossibly entertaining style whose sharpness can hardly be expressed in mere description. Even the performances that Ritchie gets out the ensemble cast are sparkling, for although Brad Pitt all but steals the show in his perfectly accented, devilishly charming and subtly layered portrayal of an enigmatic and, of course, hard-to-understand Irish traveler who won't be budged until he gets what he feels is his job done, virtually everyone delivers on memorable, charming performances, from secondary and even tertiary talents, to a dynamite lead cast featuring, in addition to Pitt, the charismatic Jason Statham, the subtly lovable Stephen Graham, the chillingly cool Benicio del Toro, the brutal Vinnie Jones, the unpredictable Rade erbedija, the harsh Alan Ford, the delightfully bumbling Robbie Gee, Lennie James and Ade, and the aggressive Dennis Farina. If this film is nothing if not charming, then this cast drives a great deal of that charm, but this pseudo-thriller of a dark comedy is more than just charming, with somewhat simple, but tense and unpredictable conflicts whose compellingness is driven by Ritchie's impeccable structuring of violent sequences (Man, the final boxing is killer, partly because of the driving Oasis instrumental... um, "[Doing Something] in the Bushes"), and an inspired celebration of intensely edgy writing which has a whole lot more than just audacity to it. While excessive and uneven, Ritchie's script is the real gem of this film, for it draws rich and memorable, if morally problematic characters and sophisticatedly complex and thorough, if somewhat convoluted stories, and backs it all with just a perfect blend of harsh realism and colorful exaggeration, as well as a layered tone which most shines when comedic, with a prime example of how British dark comedies' "high-brow vulgarity" or "sophisticated low-brow" humor ought to be done that delivers on gutsy, pseudo-absurdist set pieces, and obscene, but impossibly snappy, intricate and all around clever dialogue, both of which go into crafting a humor that non-Brits will have to pay close attention to, but ranges from endearing to absolutely bloody hysterical. With a razor-sharp sense of humor, a sparklingly charming cast, and a dynamite style that does a generally fine job of alternating between fluff and tension, this film is incredible fun, being so competent that it could have gone a long, long way if its story didn't have inconsequential aspects, and if its telling didn't get so disjointed and excessive, if not a little overwrought, which isn't to say that there isn't plenty to hold your attention through and through.

When the job is done, what natural shortcomings there are to this, by no means light, but dramatically limited story concept go stressed by excessiveness, problematic character traits, notable inconsistencies in focus, tone and pacing, and overstylization, thus, the final product is held back from what it could have been, what with its dynamite soundtrack, handsome cinematography, stellar style, across-the-board thoroughly charming performances, resonant direction, and smart, complex and, of course, hilariously snappy script, which nevertheless make Guy Ritchie's "Snatch" a thoroughly rewarding and wildly entertaining modern classic in British dark and crime comedy.

3/5 - Good.