Sexy Beast (2000) Jonathan Glazer

Ben Kingsley ... Don Logan
Ray Winstone ... Gary 'Gal' Dove
Amanda Redman ... Deedee Dove
Cavan Kendall ... Aitch
Julianne White ... Jackie
Álvaro Monje ... Enrique
Ian McShane ... Teddy Bass
James Fox ... Harry

reelingreviews: 'Gary "Gal" Dove (Ray Winstone) lives in quiet complacency on the sunny coast of southern Spain. To all appearances, he is a normal middle-aged guy who opted for early retirement. When friends tell him that he is about to have a visit from Don Logan (Ben Kingsley), fear strikes the hearts of all in "Sexy Beast."
One thing that "Sexy Beast" definitely is, is an enigma. It is, as far as I can tell, a one of a kind, dazzlingly colorful gangster film noir. Music video and commercial director Jonathan Glazer does make quite a splash (and not just at the film's funny, offbeat rolling stone opening) with a gangster film that is long on talk and brief, even terse, on caper.
Gal has done time for his gangland deeds and is now blissfully retired to a villa on the Costa del Sol with his mutually adoring wife, Deedee (Amanda Redman). Aside from a near miss by a huge, mysteriously rolling stone, life on the sunny Spanish shoreline could not be better. Until he learns that he is about to have a visit by the sinister Don Logan (Ben Kingsley), a blast from his gangster past. Just when Gal had himself convinced that he was out of the crime game for good, Logan arrives to drag him back in, whether he wants to or not. Gal is convinced that if he tells Don to his face, "I'm not gonna do it," all will be well. But, it won't and the violent, unpredictable Logan will not take "no" for an answer.
This scenario, with snippets of the setup for the upcoming London caper mixed in, takes up the first two-thirds of the film, and precedes the heist itself with a violent confrontation with Don. Gal arrives in London, sans Logan, and wholeheartedly does his bit to pull off the grand theft and take attention away from the missing Don. Crime boss and mastermind of the break-in into an ultra secure vault, Teddy Best (Ian McShane), smells a rat in Gal and does not believe his underling's story on the whereabouts of Logan. After the heist and a pointedly insulting payoff to Gal, the ultra-sinister Teddy promises that he might pay a visit to Gal in Spain, just to see how he's doing. Once in, never out.
Ray Winstone does a fine job as the troubled Gal. The retired criminal's particular talent (though this is not made clear in one of the movie's ambiguities) earned him a good enough living, but after being busted and doing time, he lost his taste for crime, seeking the solitude of Spain to spend his days with Deedee. Ray doesn't have the gonads to stand up to Don and weakens under his violent colleague's constant badgering. Winstone ably displays Gal's tumble into insecurity and fear. Ben Kingsley earns point as a violent, uncontrollable monster.....'

tiscali: "Don (Ben Kingsley) is on his way to Spain to persuade Gal to return and help on a 'job' in London. It is not so much the idea of the job and coming out of retirement that fills Gal with dread - it is the arrival of Don. Very cleverly, the director doesn't explain exactly why Don is such a threat, but the immediate unease among Gal and his mob makes it clear that their lives are about to be turned upside down.
With so much build-up to a character's on-screen arrival, Kingsley has a lot to live up to, but he delivers in spades. His performance should be studied by every aspiring actor. Were it not for the skill of Winstone and his co-stars, Kingsley would simply blow them all off the screen. He is in Spain to get Gal back to London and he is not going to take no for an answer. A truly terrifying creation, Don exudes menace from every pore. Kingsley is simply astonishing: tattooed and shaved, he is taut and wiry and definitely someone you would never wish to cross. Or, for that matter, meet. He is a psychological bully who threatens to explode into violence at any moment....."

Film Comment: "...SEXY BEAST sizzles....[The film] constantly surprises, unfolding and reinventing itself in unexpected ways..."

Movieline's Hollywood Life: "...The cast is uniformly excellent....This is a highly imaginative piece of filmmaking -- and one hell of a scary ride..."

Los Angeles Times: "...Style that burns....SEXY BEAST also has a strong plot and a pair of excellent performances..."

Premiere: "...This is Kingsley's best performance in years, maybe his best ever....SEXY BEAST is a deft, remarkably tight [film]..."

New York Times: "...[Kingsley's] performance jolts the movie like an exposed high-voltage wire....[Glazer] clearly has a knack for quick visual thinking and a snappy rhythmic sense..."

USA Today: "...Its casting is so right and its 90-minute pacing so crisp that what emerges is one of the year's few sleepers..." -- 3 1/2 out of 4 stars

Rolling Stone: "...It's Kinsley who will fire you up. He's dynamite. Ditto the movie..."

Barnes & Noble: "It’s not easy these days to come up with anything new in a gangster film, but first-time director Jonathan Glazer has done just that in Sexy Beast. The basic contours of the plot are familiar: Former crook Gal (Ray Winstone), happily retired to a Spanish seaside villa with his beloved wife, ex-hooker Deedee (Amanda Redman), is bullied by Don (Ben Kingsley), a sinister cohort from his past, into committing a high-stakes heist back in their native England. The intensity of the performances and the vividness of the milieu, though, make the film bracing and fresh. Kingsley dazzles as a demonic thug so choked with rage that he’s a walking time bomb. Don viciously badgers Gal and Deedee with a nonstop stream of Cockney-accented vitriol, yet he reveals, beneath his repugnant exterior, glimmers of a warped human being that make him almost as pathetic as he is horrific. In contrast, Gal is a teddy bear who has grown soft and fat on a life of sun-baked bliss; and Winstone and Redman make their characters’ terror palpable as Don threatens to destroy their Spanish paradise. As riveting as Kingsley is, it is Winstone and Redman's quietly passionate performances that hold the film together. With their suntans, garish jewelry, and ostentatious dream house, Gal and Deedee look like gangster clichés; that their devotion to one another is so convincing and moving is among the film's refreshing surprises."

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