Ordinary Decent Criminal

On the wings of the Sopranos era concept 'crime is a business as any other', here comes the Irish version. The problem is that it lies entirely on the shoulders of Oscar-touched Kevin Stacey. It tries to be a very Irish film, with human and enjoyable gangsters, the cops are the villain, and the victims never really show up. The charm relies entirely on Kevin Stacey's performance, though some other good acting can be seen around - for example Linda Fiorentino who gets too little screen time, in my opinion, and some other supporting actors who must be Irish or British because they are both good, as well as fresh faces. However, acting only cannot save the movie, it is after all easy to forget, and certainly cannot provide the answer to the key question - can ordinary decent criminals really be ordinary decent humans?

This is a charming, rollicking yarn, full of mischievous criminal acts perpetrated by Spacey and his cronies. It's light, frothy, and doesn't develop much suspense or real drama, and ultimately is a pointless exercise in movie making.

Spacey is OK, Linda Fiorentino is wooden (perhaps concentrating too much on trying to master the lyrical cadences of the Irish accent - she fails!). Helen Baxendale is simperingly gorgeous as usual, but she too fails to get as close to the accent as Spacey. The supporting cast of British and Irish actors are wonderful, and there are some delightful cameos.

Sadly, Patrick Malahide is wasted, his character being painted with a broad and parodied brush.

Boorman's "The General" covered the same subject matter much more expertly, but without the benefit of a Hollywood "A-list" actor to kick it along.

I'm still wondering what possessed Kevin Spacey, who is a fine actor, to get involved in this movie.

Who doesn't like witty, lovable criminals, who out wit every copper and other rival criminals in a heartbeat? That's a crime movie genre, which actually appeals to me: smart dialogs, funny action and so on.

So, in "Ordinary Decent Criminal" we have one of the greatest living actors, Kevin Spacey, who is playing Irish mobster named Michael Lynch, and he's just such a fellow I described. There's also Colin Farrell in a small role as one of the thugs in Michael's gang. Actually rather good acting all around from all of the actors and that's the only reason this movie stays afloat, because the script is not that funny as it tries to be.

Sure, it has couple of good laughs in it, but most of the jokes feel little forced.

Direction is pretty decent, not worst thing ever directed, but certainly not the greatest crime movie either.

Good for couple of laughs.

Entertaining enough as far as it goes, though that isn't very far. The crime vignettes are highly amusing, but the over-arching plot - the story of Lynch being sold-out to the IRA by his own team - lacks development and is much too conveniently resolved in a climax that relies on coincidence. However Spacey, as always, is a joy to watch. He's a fine actor, and he does convince - the occasional accent lapse notwithstanding.

Based, for the most part, on the same real-life character who inspired John Boorman's "The General", "Ordinary Decent Criminal" suffers in comparison but while it's far from being a great film it's a reasonably enjoyable one nevertheless with a highly unlikely Kevin Spacey cast as Ireland's master criminal and number one gangster 'Michael Taylor''. We're not talking Spacey the double Oscar winner here but Spacey the actor prepared to take on any role and run with it and he seems to be laughing up his sleeve with us or perhaps just at us.

That fine and yet largely unknown Irish director Thaddeus O'Sullivan helmed the picture from a good screenplay by Gerard Stembridge and he's assembled a first-rate cast that also includes Linda Fiorentino, Peter Mullan, StephenDillane, Helen Baxendale, David Hayman and Patrick Malahide as well as Colin Farrell and Christoph Waltz early in their careers.

The tone is largely comic though the material is fundamentally serious and today the film feels a bit like a fish out of water; you might even say it's all a bit tasteless given the state of Irish 'gangsterism' in the last decade but if it's closer to "Father Ted" than "The General" maybe it's not such a bad thing. A little too broad at times but somehow it call comes right at the end.