DB7

Must-have movies: Sexy Beast
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 05/10/2007

Ben Kingsley's performance has to be seen to be believed in this brilliantly re-imagined heist movie, writes Mark Monahan

Ex-gangster Gal Dove (Ray Winstone) is blissfully retired in Spain when, out of the blue, he finds two boulders hurtling towards him.

The first is of the conventional kind: thundering down a hill towards his villa, it misses him by a whisker and shatters the film's gorgeously languorous opening, and the bottom of Gal's pool. The next one, however, takes a quite different form, and is altogether more terrifying.

For Gal is suddenly wanted back in London for One Last Job, and Don Logan (Ben Kingsley), who has come to pressgang him into it, is not going to accept a refusal.

The famously brawny Winstone – himself an often fearsome screen presence – has admitted that he wasn't entirely convinced he could "ever be bashed up by Gandhi". But, as the former boxer has also cheerfully confessed, how very wrong he was.

The fevered, post-Mamet rhythms of Louis Mellis and David Scinto's screenplay push Kingsley to astonishing heights – or, rather, depths.
advertisement

His hood is the archetypal lonely child grown into a full-blooded monster: so angry, so bitter, so crafty, so self-possessed, and above all so venomously articulate that the performance really has to be seen to be believed.

Recent British cinema has yielded no more riveting or blackly comic sight – or reversal of screen persona – than this demonic small man terrorising the far larger one.

Equally vital to the film's impact, though, is director Jonathan Glazer's refusal to rely on dialogue alone. To say that he cut his teeth on some of Radiohead's finest pop videos, as well as the most spectacular Guinness ads, is to give some idea of how richly glossy his debut film looks, despite so much of it playing out in the confines of the villa.

Besides coaxing Kingsley to greatness, he doesn't miss a trick – visual, structural, sonic or musical – in his mission to heighten the atmosphere and tension.

The film's emotional heart, though, comes from Winstone's whipping-boy, torn between loyalty to his wife (the perfectly cast Amanda Redman) and obligations to his past life.

It's their tenderly drawn relationship that makes the film more than merely a showcase for blitzkrieg acting and fancypants directing, or even just a brilliantly re-imagined heist movie, but also something close to a love story, and a sweet one at that.

MovieLover12

Ben Kingsley's performance is mesmerising. You, as a viewer is gripped by his unpredictable nature and you know he is a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. Ray Winstone is also a very good actor and he proves himself in this gem of a movie.

Wicked Lady

I actually think Ray Winstone is the stand out in this movie. His understated frustration is very well played.

stevie boy

as said before,I would have kicked Kingsley in the balls. When people resort to bad language they become pathtic not fearsome. Look at Considine in dead mans shoes I think he swears once not all the time. Mind you I do not like Kingsley.

Colonel Blimp

I agree! Paddy Considine is terrifying in DMS, whereas BK is just a cartoon in Sexy Beast. I love GoodFellas (Scorsese's last good film) but the swearing is beyond ludicrous and forever mars the film's effectiveness. I don't care if 'people like that' swear all the time, it's simply not remotely interesting (or even dramatically effective) to hear Joe Pesci say F F F all the time ...

Effective unexpected swear: when Donald Sutherland says the F word to Julie Christie in Don't Look Now ...

Pip pip!

scholes

Ben Kingsley admitted that it was the rhythm in the scriptwriting which was powerful enough for him not to advance any notion of improvisation, and credits his background in the theatre for bringing traits of the Shakespearean character Iago in Don Logan.
I think Logan is as funny as he is explosive, and the description 'blackly comic' is quite appropriate. Never have so many rattles been thrown out of a seemingly bottomless pram, yet the non sequitur way in which the more colourful language is delivered manages to convey his sociopathic side effectively.
Winstone and Redman work well to maintain the film's sanity.
Sexy Beast works on a certain level, but isn't one of my favourite films.

christoph404

The most terrifying character in this film for me is Teddy Bass, "Mr Black Magic" as played by Ian McShane, now he is truly scary and when he calmly blasts James Fox in the head the tension afterwards as he drives Ray Winstone to the bus stop is unbearable. Don Logan is a mouthy psycopath for sure but not that clever, he will tell you a thousand times that he will effing kill you, the McShane character will just do it when you least expect it without any anouncement,and get away with it. When he questions Winstone as to Don Logans whereabouts and makes it clear that he knows Winstone is lying, well I thought the implication as to what might happen to Winstone's character at the hands of evil Teddy Bass a lot scarier than Don Logans repetitive foul mouthed threats.

scholes

Yes I would agree with this wholeheartedly. Once you got over the shock of Kingsley's volte face performance as Logan, McShane becomes a far more menacing proposition, which is largely overlooked.

Keechelus

Kingsley's "expletives-never-deleted" character is funny and frightening in the story's context.

A small intense man with a big presence (see early Richard Widmark for example) can be a fascinating character. I forgive the 'effin-blindin' aspect of Don Logan, because it advanced the story very well.

Ray Winstone was excellent - in much the same way that an ex-street thug was played by Bob Hoskins in THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY (1980). Cocktails on the yacht; until a new generation of hard boys ended his happy middle years. You can't retire.