Layer Cake Release Date: May 13, 2005 Starring: , Daniel Craig, Colm Meaney, Kenneth Cranham, Sienna Miller, Michael Gambon Directed by: Matthew Vaughn GLENN KENNY'S REVIEW (posted 5/12/05)
Producer Matthew Vaughn, loyal colleague of director Guy Ritchie through thick (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) and thin (Swept Away), goes for what he knows—near-manic crime thrills—in his directorial debut. The backstabbings and bloodbaths of this drug-dealer-looking-to-get-out tale will be familiar to Ritchie aficionados and lovers of bad-boy antics in general. But while Vaughn is as fond of slick visual tricks as the next lad director (he’s got a nifty way of doing scene transitions via CGI-assisted pans instead of cuts), he’s way less jokey than his guy Guy, and Cake, which was adapted by J.J. Connolly from his novel, has even more twists than you might be used to with this kind of material. Which, combined with the often thick accents to be heard here, makes for something that demands a little more attention than the genre’s standard fare. Such attention will be well, if not richly, rewarded. Even those unable to keep up should enjoy lead Daniel Craig, the self-described businessman who wants out of this particular business but gets drawn in over his head. One of the best moments in his performance comes with a knock on his hotel room door from a blond knockout he’s keen on hooking up with. When he hears it, he looks in the mirror, trying to figure out exactly how cool he wants to play it, but telling us without a word that he can’t believe he’s about to have sex with this woman. It’s hilarious, and genuinely cool.
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