Playing the Game

I am sure that most of you may recall my review last summer with Canadian PGA golfer Riley Wheeldon (who had such a good year that he has advanced to the Web.com Tour – just one step below the PGA tour), who said that his favourite movie was Happy Gilmore. I was actually lucky enough to golf with a second pro last year; Welshman, Ben Briscoe. Briscoe attended the qualifier, which was played at the Cornwall Golf and Country Club, and sadly did not make the cut (which would have sent him to Upper Canada Golf Course to play in the Great Waterway Classic), giving him the less satisfying runner-up prize of playing a round of golf with me.

When asked about his film preferences, it did not take him long to reference a movie from his native United Kingdom, the 2004 British crime flick Layer Cake. The film follows drug dealer XXXX (Daniel Craig – in probably his best performance and the role that made Barbara Broccoli take notice of him for the James Bond character) as he navigates the seedy British underworld whilst planning his early retirement.

XXXX attends a lunch in which he receives two new jobs from boss Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham): one, to help find acquaintance Eddie Temple’s (Michael Gambon – Dumbledore in Harry Potter) daughter and two, to purchase one million ecstasy pills from low level gangster Duke (Jamie Foreman).

XXXX accepts the missions with trepidation, inheriting some major problems along the way. He does not know that the drugs have been stolen from a dangerous group of Serbian drug dealers in the Netherlands (who have hired a hit man named Dragan to clean up the problem) and something does not sit right with tracking down the girl. To further complicate things, he immediately falls for Price’s nephew’s (Ben Whishaw – Q in Skyfall) girlfriend, Tammy (Sienna Miller).

The savvy middleman must navigate a plethora of problems while avoiding cops, criminals, a hit man and everything in between as he stealthily implements his plan to solve the mounting pile of problems and ultimately retire.

Craig does an admirable job as the bright criminal who is able to weave his way through the complicated games that people are playing around him. The cast members mentioned above, as well as Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises), Colm Meaney (Mystery, Alaska), George Harris (Kingsley Shacklebolt in Harry Potter) and Jason Flemyng (Hanna) round out a superb, mostly Brit cast – all of which do a great job with the solid script written by J.J. Connolly (also the author of the book the movie is based on). Director Matthew Vaughn (Kick Ass, X-Men: First Class) is able to put all the pieces together to create a strong flick that encompasses everything from violence and grit to comedy, drama and suspense.

The British are superb at making these types of films. They have the skill, talent and actors (that are not too perfect-looking unlike their Hollywood counterparts) to pull off an edgy gangster picture. English film makers are also fearless when it comes to making unconventional and surprising story decisions or choices, making their work much more unpredictable than the Hollywood film offerings. These elements make for one heck of an entertaining ride. Layer Cake is a film that definitely meets the above criteria. It has a solid script, excellent acting, sharp direction and a superb ending. So, take a shot with this Brit flick; it will leave you on high.