Amidst the wreckage, Colin Diamond (Ray Winstone) lies on the floor of his home with the stereo still on. He is alive but entirely shell-shocked by something that he has done. He calls his friend Archie (Tom Wilkinson) to tell him what has happened. It becomes apparent that Colin has had a domestic fight with his wife Liz (Joanne Whalley) who has admitted to him that she has been seeing someone else and that their marriage is now over. Colin, with the help of his gangster friends like Archie, Old Man Peanut (John Hurt), Meredith (Ian McShane) and Mal (Stephen Dillane) decides to kidnap Liz's lover, who is a French waiter. They bound him up and stick him in a wardrobe in a rundown building. Struggling with his internal frustrations, Colin must decide whether he is going to kill the man who stole his wife.
At just 95 minutes this minor British dramedy attempts to subvert the conventions and characterisation of the gangster genre. Whereas Guy Ritchie stylishly visualised the lives of the lowest ranked criminals in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, director Malcolm Venville has opted to focus on the middle class variant of the underworld. With their comfortable homes and knowledge of culture these thugs seem to be a step up from the street work but regardless they are still foulmouthed, primitive animals. They bash then interrogate the unnamed lover without letting him utter a word and their misogynist remarks directed at Liz ensures that there is little consideration for the choices that she has decided to make for herself. As bleak as this may sound, the film is still regularly funny and edgy, with a heavy reliance on four letter expletives for laughs. According to some sources, one of the swear words is used at least 160 times throughout the film. Given that so much of the narrative takes place in just a single room, with only a few flashbacks to show the audience what has happened previously, it is testimony to the experience of the cast and their pinpoint delivery of this rather crude dialogue that one's engagement is still sustained.
Yet for all the laughs that it earns, the end leaves the film in its entirety as unsatisfying and superfluous. There has been a deliberate effort here to make the film anticlimactic and it is exactly that. It is meant to subvert the savagery and ruthlessness of the gangster's life but at the same time it simply leaves the audience asking what the point was. Whether Venville intended it or not, the message is one that has been read many times before, only here it is less satisfying: crime doesn't pay. Any of the film's attempts to reach a deeper psychological understanding of Colin feels incoherent rather than intelligent. With such a short running time there will be many who will be left expecting more from this particularly narrow story.
Even though the characters are enlivened more by the experience of the British cast rather than the quality of the script, the performances are still uniformly solid. The only strain on credibility here is why a woman as beautiful as Liz would be so inclined to marry a brute like Colin. Ray Winstone is not as acceptable as a loving man but he is still adept at conveying the internal anger that swells up inside of him, thinking about what he has lost. His performance works most efficiently as a means of passive expression. John Hurt steals this film as Old Man Peanut with a riotously funny performance and some outrageous dialogue. His retelling of Samson and Delilah, complete with expletives, is easily one of the film's very best moments.
44 Inch Chest is a largely unmemorable British gangster film because of its small scale and its failure to amount to anything more than old men behaving badly. It attempts to subvert the genre by showing the vulnerable side of the crime figure, but it is still difficult to care about what happens to these thugs. For those who are drawn in by the quality of the cast though, there are still some genuinely funny moments and enjoyable performances that might prove satisfactory.
At just 95 minutes this minor British dramedy attempts to subvert the conventions and characterisation of the gangster genre. Whereas Guy Ritchie stylishly visualised the lives of the lowest ranked criminals in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, director Malcolm Venville has opted to focus on the middle class variant of the underworld. With their comfortable homes and knowledge of culture these thugs seem to be a step up from the street work but regardless they are still foulmouthed, primitive animals. They bash then interrogate the unnamed lover without letting him utter a word and their misogynist remarks directed at Liz ensures that there is little consideration for the choices that she has decided to make for herself. As bleak as this may sound, the film is still regularly funny and edgy, with a heavy reliance on four letter expletives for laughs. According to some sources, one of the swear words is used at least 160 times throughout the film. Given that so much of the narrative takes place in just a single room, with only a few flashbacks to show the audience what has happened previously, it is testimony to the experience of the cast and their pinpoint delivery of this rather crude dialogue that one's engagement is still sustained.
Yet for all the laughs that it earns, the end leaves the film in its entirety as unsatisfying and superfluous. There has been a deliberate effort here to make the film anticlimactic and it is exactly that. It is meant to subvert the savagery and ruthlessness of the gangster's life but at the same time it simply leaves the audience asking what the point was. Whether Venville intended it or not, the message is one that has been read many times before, only here it is less satisfying: crime doesn't pay. Any of the film's attempts to reach a deeper psychological understanding of Colin feels incoherent rather than intelligent. With such a short running time there will be many who will be left expecting more from this particularly narrow story.
Even though the characters are enlivened more by the experience of the British cast rather than the quality of the script, the performances are still uniformly solid. The only strain on credibility here is why a woman as beautiful as Liz would be so inclined to marry a brute like Colin. Ray Winstone is not as acceptable as a loving man but he is still adept at conveying the internal anger that swells up inside of him, thinking about what he has lost. His performance works most efficiently as a means of passive expression. John Hurt steals this film as Old Man Peanut with a riotously funny performance and some outrageous dialogue. His retelling of Samson and Delilah, complete with expletives, is easily one of the film's very best moments.
44 Inch Chest is a largely unmemorable British gangster film because of its small scale and its failure to amount to anything more than old men behaving badly. It attempts to subvert the genre by showing the vulnerable side of the crime figure, but it is still difficult to care about what happens to these thugs. For those who are drawn in by the quality of the cast though, there are still some genuinely funny moments and enjoyable performances that might prove satisfactory.