Gal Dove (Ray Winstone) is a retired safe cracker for the criminal underworld who has moved over to Spain to 'enjoy' his retirement. Things are great for Ray, he spends his days lounging by the pool in his apartment, dining out at restaurants and generally living a care free existence. However, Gal's care free existence is tipped upside down when his friend Jackie (Julianne White) receives a call from Don Logan (Ben Kingsley) who says that he wants Gal to join him in London to help him and his cronies to pull off one last job. Logan gets on a plane and heads for Spain intent on Gal coming back with him to assist in pulling off this job. Gal refuses to do the job, but Don is not the sort of person who takes 'No' for an answer and is determined that Gal will assist with this job whether he likes it or not.
What's interesting about Sexy Beast is that it is a character driven film rather than a plot driven film. Character driven films are generally risky because typically if the characters aren't well written then the film will fail - that's not the case here. There is only about a 5 minute segment from the 90 minute running time spent on explaining the heist and it's only sporadically mentioned outside of this scene - until the end when the heist takes place. I could probably fill a 1000 word limit just writing about Kingsley's character, but due to IMDb word constraints I will try and keep my comments on his character as short as possible. On the surface, Logan is a thug, he's arrogant, he likes to let people know he's in charge. If you go deeper into his character, I see a very troubled person - it's clear to me that he's some kind of paranoid schizophrenic (the scene where he's talking to himself in the mirror and claiming that Gal has said various things about him - none of these things have ever been said and it clearly shows that he suffers from mass paranoia). He then proceeds to attack Gal based on what his 'inner' voice is telling him. Likewise, the scene when he's on board the aircraft and he refuses to put his cigarette out - this can be looked at in two ways; 1) He intended to fly back to London, but doesn't like being told what to do and doesn't like conforming to rules and therefore refused to co-operate or 2) He became a nuisance because he deliberately wanted to get kicked off the plane because he needed to complete his task of getting Gal back to London. His reasons are wide open to interpretation and the fact that we're never quite sure what he's thinking or what he's going to do ultimately made him a fascinating character. He's clearly not insane though as the scene immediately after his departure from the aircraft clearly demonstrates -the way he managed to turn the scenario around to make the airport staff believe that he was the victim was not only cold and calculating, but he also made his sob story believable. This shows that Logan is also capable of pathological lying as well as paranoid schizophrenia. What a character!
Then we come to Gal; people tend to remember Kingsley's performance in this film (with good reason), but people really shouldn't discount Winstone's performance. His best scenes are the scenes when he is with Logan - Winstone gives a really convincing performance (particularly in scenes where Logan is intimidating him - I felt scared for him and that's a testament to Winstone's acting ability which I think is much better than many people give him credit for).
The direction and editing were superb as well; lots of quick editing and stylish camera work that linked scenes together nicely. It was all really clever so full marks go to Glazer for his terrific work. The music was also great; it was retro and cool and fitted in nicely with the tone of the film.
Ironically, the weakest part of the film is the heist itself which if I'm honest was a bit dull and derivative, but it didn't bother me because I was so fascinated by the array of interesting characters that I still enjoyed the film even though the plot seemed to take a back seat in the film.
Sexy Beast is a great little film which is bound to impress those that love character driven films. It's a rare example of a film that is great despite the fact that the plot takes a back seat to such an extent that it almost becomes insignificant. It sounds bizarre saying this, but if you've watched the film you'll understand what I mean.
What's interesting about Sexy Beast is that it is a character driven film rather than a plot driven film. Character driven films are generally risky because typically if the characters aren't well written then the film will fail - that's not the case here. There is only about a 5 minute segment from the 90 minute running time spent on explaining the heist and it's only sporadically mentioned outside of this scene - until the end when the heist takes place. I could probably fill a 1000 word limit just writing about Kingsley's character, but due to IMDb word constraints I will try and keep my comments on his character as short as possible. On the surface, Logan is a thug, he's arrogant, he likes to let people know he's in charge. If you go deeper into his character, I see a very troubled person - it's clear to me that he's some kind of paranoid schizophrenic (the scene where he's talking to himself in the mirror and claiming that Gal has said various things about him - none of these things have ever been said and it clearly shows that he suffers from mass paranoia). He then proceeds to attack Gal based on what his 'inner' voice is telling him. Likewise, the scene when he's on board the aircraft and he refuses to put his cigarette out - this can be looked at in two ways; 1) He intended to fly back to London, but doesn't like being told what to do and doesn't like conforming to rules and therefore refused to co-operate or 2) He became a nuisance because he deliberately wanted to get kicked off the plane because he needed to complete his task of getting Gal back to London. His reasons are wide open to interpretation and the fact that we're never quite sure what he's thinking or what he's going to do ultimately made him a fascinating character. He's clearly not insane though as the scene immediately after his departure from the aircraft clearly demonstrates -the way he managed to turn the scenario around to make the airport staff believe that he was the victim was not only cold and calculating, but he also made his sob story believable. This shows that Logan is also capable of pathological lying as well as paranoid schizophrenia. What a character!
Then we come to Gal; people tend to remember Kingsley's performance in this film (with good reason), but people really shouldn't discount Winstone's performance. His best scenes are the scenes when he is with Logan - Winstone gives a really convincing performance (particularly in scenes where Logan is intimidating him - I felt scared for him and that's a testament to Winstone's acting ability which I think is much better than many people give him credit for).
The direction and editing were superb as well; lots of quick editing and stylish camera work that linked scenes together nicely. It was all really clever so full marks go to Glazer for his terrific work. The music was also great; it was retro and cool and fitted in nicely with the tone of the film.
Ironically, the weakest part of the film is the heist itself which if I'm honest was a bit dull and derivative, but it didn't bother me because I was so fascinated by the array of interesting characters that I still enjoyed the film even though the plot seemed to take a back seat in the film.
Sexy Beast is a great little film which is bound to impress those that love character driven films. It's a rare example of a film that is great despite the fact that the plot takes a back seat to such an extent that it almost becomes insignificant. It sounds bizarre saying this, but if you've watched the film you'll understand what I mean.