Gary Dove (Ray Winstone) is an ex safe cracker now living in
retirement in Spain.
He and his best friend Aitch (Cavan Kendall) live idyllic lives in the Spanish
sun but their relaxed lives are interrupted by the arrival of terrifying London gangster Don Logan (Ben Kingsley) who tries to
forcefully persuade Gary to do another job back
in the UK.
Despite his protestations Don won’t take no for an answer and an uneasy
standoff develops between the two men.
I’ve never been a fan of the Guy Ritchie style London based gangster
films and get annoyed that British films are generally divided into costume
drama or East End Gangster flicks. Sexy
Beast feels very different from the Gut Ritchie style of film and reminded
me more of a Nicholas Winding Refn film. The colour saturation, violence and
electro, bass heavy soundtrack are all signatures of his work and had I been
told this was one of his films I wouldn’t have doubted it. The film is actually
the debut feature of Director Jonathan Glazer who is better known as a Director
of adverts and music videos. He brings his easy on the eye style to the big
screen and here creates a memorable film which also has one of the best Ben
Kingsley performances I’ve seen.
