Seule la mort peut m'arrêter

This is a great movie laden with enigmatic style. A modern, gritty film noir with a powerful and restrained performance by Clive Owen. Compared to other contemporary gangster movies, this one does without cheap action and unmotivated aspects of humor. This is a film taking itself and its moviegoers seriously. The pace and rhythm of the movie and great cinematography accentuates the underlying and half hidden aspects of the script, Clive Owen's acting really proves here that less is more. This movie is indeed one of the two best crime movies to come out of Britain around the turn of the millennium, the other being, of course, "Sexy Beast". These films both combine great style, magnetic performances from the currently best British actors, compelling story lines and sense of warmth emanating from perfectly cast protagonists; Owen and Winstone, respectively.

This is an old master's film, in which an aged director goes back to revisit the kind of story he excelled at when young, with dubious results. A more satisfying example of this kind of nostalgia would be John Frankenheimer's "Ronin," and if you had trouble with that one, you'll hate this one.

What Mike Hodges gives us here is a great wind-up and no pitch. London at night, endless shots of almost-human cars under the street lamps, a threatening bunch of thugs who never really thump each other, it all adds up to considerably less than a whole film.

Much has been made in these reviews about the film's ambiguity. I disagree. All the characters, and I mean all, are painfully aware and articulate about their motivations. Gloomy predictions are made about inevitable conflicts that never materialize, action is either cut short or cut away from. The whole thing is like a Michael Mann thriller with all the thrills scrupulously removed. Or perhaps Hodges is trying to reclaim the genre from Guy Ritchie's jokiness.

The script for this film must really have looked threadbare on the page. The dialog is obvious and arthritic. What works is the acting, the cinematography and the director's depressed atmospherics. Clive Owen demonstrates his considerable presence in a part that is intended to be a deliberate let-down. Charlotte Rampling is fascinating as always, more so than her lines. The rest of the cast ranges from good down to OK.

But in his determination to avoid clichés, the director has also managed to avoid incident, pace and interest. So a nice wind-up, but no pitch, no runs, no hits, and some calculated, deliberate errors.

First the locations. This is London as it has not been seen since The Long Good Friday, Brixton; Holland Park near where I live. The camera loves these locations at night, a London where only the bad guys come out. The beach at the beginning and the end of the film is Newport Sands in Pembrokeshire where I spent many childhood holidays. There is even a shot of Fishguard with the Royal Oak pub in the background.

A plot that is deceptively simple, but is it. Does the Clive Owen character really want revenge or is he out of all that now? He doesn't know and he certainly isn't going to tell the audience, we have to do the work and think, something many cinemagoers do not like doing these days. His ambivelence is shown when he goes to kill Malcolm McDowall (in his best role since Gangster No.1.).

The acting is superb and realistic especially Ken Stott as the rival gang leader who can't tell his left from right. The dialogue is often elliptical leaving us to fill in the gaps, a bit like real life. Owen fills the screen, even when not speaking, he is the smouldering heart of the film with only Charlotte Rampling his equal when both are in shot.

And thank goodness no tidy endings. I am sure this will go down well in the states who had to show us how good Croupier was. I think its on in about five cinemas in the UK.

Not predictable like most revenge dramas. Nice to see Clive Owen's character actually in love with someone his own age. Interesting music, if a little distracting. Very dark. Not a family flick. Not a date flick. Well written. Great acting by most characters. It was too short. It was a big build up to a very short denouement, but I guess that suits the tone and the theme of the film. Not sure why people gave this such low marks. I guess they were expecting Lock stock or snatch seeing as its kind of in the British gangster genre. If you go in expecting that, then you will be disappointed. What was great about this movie was that we slowly got to know the characters without much of significance being said about them outright. It was slow in creating a mood without ever being boring.

This story starts with several sets of mostly low life characters in various settings and slowly shows how the characters relate. Davey(Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is the self absorbed party animal, low level drug dealer whose tragic events form the glue to tie the characters together. Will (Clive Owen) first appears as a hard working back to nature recluse, but we soon learn he is Davey's brother. We learn that this morose woodsman was some kind of crime boss. His return to deal with Davey's tragedy kicks off the pivotal events that make up the rest of the movie. What looks at first like several disjointed stories slowly starts tying together. This is not your glorified crime life like the Godfather, or the Sopranos. This story is not about action, it's about how criminals think and feel and act based on those thoughts and feelings. It is a dark world, full of bad choices and painful consequences. It is a somewhat complicated story like these kinds of things are in real life. There are old relationships: loves, friends, enemies that must be dealt with in a time when emotion is hard to control. If you want something fast, are looking for clear cut plots, and easily understood characters you will be disappointed. I personally like movies sometimes that are not afraid to break with clear cut formulas and don't feel compelled to explain everything in clear terms. I found the movie very intriguing. This is a movie about how characters, in this case, criminals, process tragic events. These dark characters living in this dark world had to deal with something that was especially dark to them. The story moves slowly because it is not about action, but the dark setting, the subtle effects on the characters as the story progresses and so on. In reality tragic events are often not clear cut, and the movie is real in its development of the story. I found myself feeling for the characters, albeit mostly sadness and a little pity with a little admiration, compassion, and understanding thrown in. If you enjoy film noir I think you might like this film.