Cast:
Ray Winstone... ...Gary "Gal" Dove
Ben Kingsley... ...Don "Malky" Logan
Ian McShane... ...Teddy Bass
Amanda Redman... ...Deedee Dove
Cavan Kendall... ...Aitch
Julianne White... ...Jackie
Alvaro Monje... ...Enrique
James Fox... ...Harry
Directed by: Jonathan Glazer
Written by: Louis Mellis and David Scinto
Rated R for pervasive language, strong violence and some sexuality
Running Time: 1 hour, 28 minuntes
"Beast" Master
Don Logan. The name causes a tarpaulin of fearful silence
to cover the dinner table where ex-con Gary "Gal"
Dove (Ray Winstone), his ex-porn star wife Deedee (Amanda
Redman), and their two closest friends (Cavan Kendall and
Julianne White) are seated. Gal has served time in prison
for crimes committed during his involvement with the British
mafia. He has since retired and now lives a quiet, peaceful
life on the Spanish Costa del Sol. His refreshingly lazy days
consist of baking in the sun alongside his pool while his
nights are spent wining and dining the love of his life. But
on this night, however, a cruel twist of fate is about to
be unleashed.
He is
a pitbull of a man, this Don Logan ... a sadistic, salivating,
psychotic serpent. His mind is a firearm constantly cocked,
his body a ferocious tiger ready to strike. How does he convince
someone to do his bidding? By repeatedly shouting commands
that closely resemble a dog's bark: "YES! YES! YES! YES!
YES!"
Logan
is played by Ben Kingsley. Yep, Ben Kingsley, he who perfectly
embodied the role of Gandhi and played the benevolent accountant
in "Schindler's List". I'm not so much surprised
that he could play a villainous character, but that he can
project the man's unquestionably sadistic nature without uttering
a single line of dialogue. There are some scenes that require
him to unleash verbal assaults, but the more frightening moments
are those where he appears ready to strike - the way he walks,
sits, his facial gestures, his piercing eyes. We are hinted
to his horrific persona by the reaction of Gal and his friends.
It is confirmed when we see Logan briskly walk through the
airport, his back upright, his arms straight and perfectly
still at his sides, his eyes forward; this is a man on a mission.
He is
assigned by crime boss Teddy Bass (Ian McShane) to acquire
Gal's participation in another heist. The retired gangster
wants nothing to do with it, but as we are told early on,
Logan isn't the kind of person you refuse. Much of the movie
is a simple battle of wills between Gal's insistance on maintaining
his retirement and Logan's neverending barrage of verbal tirades.
"Sexy
Beast" is the first feature film from Jonathan Glazer,
an award-winning commercial director and former pop video
auteur. He accompanies Louis Mellis and David Schinto's screenplay
with a marvelous visual style, incorporating such touches
as a boulder that tumbles down a mountain, just misses Gal
and takes refuge at the bottom of his pool. The heist itself
is also beautifully shot and masterfully edited.
Kingsley
will get the most attention, but terrific performances exist
across the board. Ian McShane is every bit as chilling as
Kingsley's Don Logan, although not as flashy. His cold, dead
eyes and mere silence are a claustrophobic cloud of doom that
can choke anyone in his presence. As Gal, Ray Winstone goes
a little against type, as he has portrayed bile-filled characters
in movies like "The War Zone". Watch closely a scene
where Gal senses danger while standing on a doorstep with
the crime boss. He successfully masks his nervousness, yet
his body still sways gently, as though one half of his mind
is contemplating a course of action the other half knows would
be futile.
Movies
like Guy Ritchie's "Lock, Stock, & Two Smoking Barrels"
and "Snatch" are similar - engaging, inventive,
and exciting - but they shudder in the wake of "Sexy
Beast"'s intensity. I'm not completely certain, but I
think the title refers to the gangster world itself, where
the only thing it masters better than the art of seduction
is the capacity for instilling fear.
Copyright
2001 Michael Brendan McLarney
Critically
Ill
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