When a seemingly straight-forward drug deal goes awry, XXXX has to break his die-hard rules and turn up the heat, not only to outwit the old regime and come out on top, but to save his own skin…
Credits: TheMovieDb.
Film Cast:
- XXXX: Daniel Craig
- Tammy: Sienna Miller
- Clarkie: Tom Hardy
- Gene: Colm Meaney
- Morty: George Harris
- Slasher: Sally Hawkins
- Jimmy Price: Kenneth Cranham
- Duke: Jamie Foreman
- Eddie Temple: Michael Gambon
- Sidney: Ben Whishaw
- Dragan: Dragan Mićanović
- Shanks: Stephen Walters
- Trevor: Louis Emerick
- Cody: Dexter Fletcher
- Terry: Tamer Hassan
- Larry – Crazy: Jason Flemyng
- Charlie: Nathalie Lunghi
- Mickey: Rab Affleck
- Gazza: Burn Gorman
- Tiptoes: Steve John Shepherd
- Dizzy: Daniel Moorehead
- Paul: Francis Magee
- Nightclub Drinker: Philip Howard
- Criminal: Darren Sean Enright
- Principal Dancer: James Dodd
- Cocaine Girl: Kelly-Marie Kerr
- Serbian Security: Nick Thomas-Webster
- Albert Carter: Don McCorkindale
- Golf Host: Budge Prewitt
- Troop: Neil Finnighan
- Kilburn Jerry: Ben Brazier
- Freddie Hurst: Ivan Kaye
- Junkie 1: Darren Healy
- Junkie 2: Matt Ryan
- Lucky: Paul Orchard
- Kinky: Marvin Benoit
- Brian: Garry Tubbs
- Angelo: Dimitri Andreas
- Slavo: Marcel Iureș
- Nobby: Brinley Green
- Serbian Gangster (uncredited): Peter Rnic
Film Crew:
- Casting: Jina Jay
- Music: Lisa Gerrard
- Producer: Matthew Vaughn
- Editor: Jon Harris
- Production Design: Kave Quinn
- Director of Photography: Ben Davis
- Casting: Leo Davis
- Music: Ilan Eshkeri
- Novel: J.J. Connolly
- Art Direction: Steve Carter
- Set Decoration: Joanna Barrs
- Costume Design: Stephanie Collie
- Producer: Adam Bohling
- Producer: David Reid
- Casting Assistant: Dixie Chassay
- Second Assistant Director: Anthony Wilcox
- Production Manager: Emma Pike
- Script Supervisor: Mary Haddow
- Unit Publicist: Diane Kelly
- Music Producer: Stephen McLaughlin
- Third Assistant Director: Samar Pollitt
- First Assistant Director: Michael Elliott
Movie Reviews:
- John Chard: I’m not a gangster, just a businessman. And my commodity happens to be cocaine.
With a considerable amount of cash saved from his, ahem, dealings. A London drug dealer is all set to retire abroad and start a new life. However his mob boss Jimmy Price has two jobs for him to do immediately…
Layer Cake is directed by Matthew Vaughn. Vaughn is more well known as Guy Ritchie’s producer on his early British gangster genre forays. Suffice to say he had some insight into what made those films {Snatch et al} hugely popular with the watching British public. How pleasing it is then to say that Vaughn, by showing restraint and an unfussy approach, has crafted a film that’s more than equal to the best of Britain gangster faves, and actually sets new parameters for toning a film. By focusing more on mood and atmosphere over bombastic scenarios, Vaughn, aided by a superlative Daniel Craig as the nameless dealer, lifts the film above its conventional plot arc. In what could have been a standard tale of a man doing one last job before going straight, we, along with Craig, find that all roads are blocked, it’s as if there is some higher force at work here.
Layer Cake also scores high for its more easy on the eye filming of London, this is no destitute capital where tower blocks loom like monsters over the characters. This London is thriving, vim and vitality, the place to be, seediness is far from the ebullient crowd. Ben Davis’ photography perfectly complimenting the engrossing score from Lisa Gerrard & Ilan Eshkeri, both of which serve to make London an extra character in the story. The film however is not perfect, at 105 minutes it’s actually too short, something that only becomes apparent when all the plot strands come crashing together in a rushed last quarter. Yet in spite of that failing, the ending delivers a jolt to the system, to crown, what to me at least, is one of Britain’s finest and tidiest gangster offerings. 9/10