Sexy Beast

Gary “Gal” Dove (Ray Winstone), a retired crook from England, is sunning himself--baking himself, really--on the deck of his beautiful hillside villa in Spain. Gal has gotten out of the game for good, and he has taken to fat, content to pass the days with his wife DeeDee (Amanda Redman) and the nights dining and drinking with friends Aitch and Jackie. It appears to be an agreeable, if perhaps a bit limited, lifestyle. Then, as Gal walks around the deck, a gigantic boulder rolls down from the hill above and plummets into the pool, missing him by inches. Thus opens “Sexy Beast,” a first-rate neo-noir thriller from rookie director Jonathan Glazer. Glazer had his start in commercials, and while that background often bodes poorly for the films of a would-be auteur, such is not the case here. Indeed, Glazer seems to have learned good, demonstrating a fine command of feature length material, along with an excellent eye and a good story sense. He makes most of his erstwhile commercial director buddies look like complete tyros.

Much as I liked Guy Ritchie’s “Snatch” (and, although less so, “Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels”), and much as the three pictures are cut a bit from the same cloth, Glazer manages to make Ritchie look like a bit of a, well, adolescent, all spinning camera moves and flick-knife editing. Glazer can do all that, sure, but he is not afraid to hold the camera still and clearly knows how to build suspense from small moments. Anyone can make noir in dark, dank, foggy places, it takes someone with a gift to make it in the blinding sunshine and desert dry air of the Spanish coast. What Gal doesn’t realize, in the wake of the boulder’s near miss, is that another relentless and implacable force of nature is bearing down on him, in the form of one Don Logan. Logan, played by Ben Kingsley, is a former colleague of Gal’s, and is coming to town to recruit Gal for another job. He is not interested, apparently, in Gal’s retirement status. Everything you need to know about Don can be seen in the reaction when Jackie (Julianne White) and Aitch (Cavan Kendall) tell Gal and DeeDee that Don has called and is on his way. As Don Logan, Kingsley is simply spectacular. Logan is a human torpedo.

Small, compact, with a shaven head and a small goatee, he is not the sort of man you would give a second glance to, unless he glanced at you first. In that one glance you would know that you were dealing with a man who is constitutionally incapable of taking no for an answer, a man who would gladly die a bloody death rather than see his will thwarted. The transformation of Kingsley (best known, remember, for his quietly powerful performances in “Ghandi” and “Schindler’s List”) into this beast (could he be the “sexy beast” of the title? I’m not sure who else qualifies) is nothing short of astounding. Trust me, you’ll never look at Kingsley the same way again. He obviously “gets” Don Logan and brings him to life in a manner that keeps him from being just a meaningless boogie man. Logan is a complete psycho, of course, but Kingsley manages to keep the human face visible throughout. Logan is pure id, he acts out every impulse he has without regard for the consequences, and we all wish for that kind of power sometimes. No wonder then that Gal is not sure how to handle the impending visit. He only knows that the one thing he does not want to do is make Don angry.

Winstone is terrific as Gal, a man who really has found his dream life and desperately wants to keep it intact. Most “one last job” movies involve a crook looking for one last big score before getting out for good. In “Sexy Beast,” Gal is trying to avoid one last job (indeed, the nature of the job itself is not even that important here), and he is probably more aware than we are that Don never actually says it will be his “last” job. The superior script, by Louis Mellis and David Scinto, move the action forward in ways that are unexpected and yet always end up seeming inevitable. The picture also features outstanding cinematography by Ivan Bird and an excellent score by Roque Baños. Glazer maintains superb control of the picture; not for one second does he let the tension flag. Glazer also does a fine job with the cast, all of whom are outstanding, but he knows, as do we, that we are lucky to have Ben Kingsley in one of the year’s most memorable performances. (6/26/2001)