Sexy Beast is a 2000 British film directed by Jonathan Glazer, starring Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley and Ian McShane. Produced by Jeremy Thomas, it was Glazer's debut feature film. He had previously been a director of music videos, such as Rabbit in Your Headlights for British electronica group UNKLE,[1] and commercials for companies such as Guinness and Levi.
The film earned Kingsley an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.[2] In 2004 the magazine Total Film named Sexy Beast the 15th greatest British film of all time.[3]
The film is rated 18 by the BBFC for Very Strong Language, Strong Bloody Violence, Strong Sex and Sex References.
Plot
Ex-con and expert safe-cracker Gary "Gal" Dove has served his time behind bars and blissfully retired to a Spanish villa with his beloved wife Deedee. He also has the company of longtime friend Aitch and his wife Jackie. Their idyll is shattered, however, by the arrival of an old criminal associate, the sociopathic Don Logan, who is intent on enlisting Gal in a bank heist back in London.
Dove politely but firmly refuses Logan's many requests to join the heist, but Logan will not back down. After revealing a lingering infatuation with Jackie, he makes several unwelcome attempts at reconnecting with her. Logan eventually grows violent, hurling torrents of abuse at the group while at the same time spitefully painting himself as a victim of their infidelity. After finally storming away in a rage, Logan is kicked off his plane and returns to Dove's home with the intention of murdering him. Instead, Deedee surprises him with a shotgun. The entire group combines their efforts, first beating and shooting him, and finally crushing his skull.
With Logan dead, Dove is forced to return to London to perform the job as if nothing has happened. Teddy Bass, a powerful crime lord, has organised the heist after learning about the bank from Harry, a banker who had sex with him at an orgy. Dove feigns ignorance over Logan's whereabouts, but Bass is immediately suspicious. Dove now fears both getting arrested by the police and being murdered by Bass. Since Logan's arrival, Dove's anxiety has manifested in strange dreams where he is menaced by a humanoid rabbit, which echoes a disastrous hunting trip earlier in the film.
During the heist, Bass' gangsters use surface-supplied diving gear and drill into Harry's bank vault from a pool in a neighboring bath house. The water from the pool floods the vault and shorts its security system. While helping to empty the vault's safe deposit boxes, Dove secretly pockets a pair of large ruby with diamond earrings. After the job is successfully completed, Bass forces Dove to accompany him to kill Harry. Though Bass has realised the truth about Logan's murder, he does not care enough to retaliate by killing Dove. Instead, he forces Dove to forfeit his share of the loot and banishes him from London.
Dove returns safely home and his paradise is restored. Deedee wears the diamond earrings that he stole, and it is revealed that Logan is buried under the double-heart insignia at the bottom of their pool, which had been damaged by a falling boulder just prior to his arrival.
Cast
- Ray Winstone as Gary "Gal" Dove. A retired safe-cracker who used to be a prominent criminal and minor celebrity in the London underworld, loved by everyone and a popular figure. He was involved in a heist that went wrong and spent nine years of his life in prison, taking the full rap for the job. Once out, he married DeeDee, the love of his life, and moved to Spain, wanting never to have anything to do with crime again. Although there are strong hints that he used to be a "hard man" back in his old life, he is now a very private person and never shows much aggression, until the final confrontation with Don Logan.
- Ben Kingsley as Don Logan. A recruiter for the London underworld, who puts people together into teams to pull off various heists. A cunning, violent sociopath, he uses everything in his power, from subtle manipulation to outright violence, to convince Dove to return to London to do a final job. Kingsley, on the DVD commentary, calls Logan "The Unhappiest Man in the World" and in several interviews, has claimed that he based his performance largely on his grandmother, whom he called " A vile and extremely unpleasant woman."
- Ian McShane as Teddy Bass. The head of a criminal empire in London. According to an interview with McShane, Bass controls a loose-knit underworld gang who does a robbery about once every 5–10 years. He is a meticulous planner and frequently uses Logan's services to put his teams together for jobs. Like Logan, Bass does not hesitate to use violence, and shoots Harry in the head in cold blood.
- Amanda Redman as Deedee. Dove's beloved wife, a former porn star who is also trying to put her old life behind her. Logan later tells Dove that her old films are still very popular; it is also heavily implied that it was very hard-core footage. According to Ben Kingsley's DVD commentary, Logan is nearly as afraid of DeeDee as she is of him.
- James Fox as Harry. A bisexual banker who shows Bass the vault after having sex with him. Harry knows that Bass is after his vault, but believes that his bank is impregnable.
- Cavan Kendall as Aitch. Dove's best friend. He and his wife Jackie are happily married, which incurs Logan's envious wrath.
- Julianne White as Jackie. Aitch's wife, who had a brief fling with Logan three years before the film is set.
- Álvaro Monje as Enrique. A Spanish boy who helps Gal out around the house.
Reception
The film has received generally favorable reviews. As of February 4, 2008, the film has received an aggregate rating of 86 percent[4] on Rotten Tomatoes, deemed "Fresh" by the website. Another popular aggregate review website, Metacritic, has given it a rating of 79 percent[5] as of February 4, 2008, a rating which classifies the film as receiving "Generally favorable reviews" by the website's rating standards. It received high praise from writers at the San Francisco Chronicle,[6] Entertainment Weekly,[7] Slate,[8] Rolling Stone[9] and the Los Angeles Times,[10] but was panned by Stephen Hunter of Washington Post who described some of the film's moments as "Ben Kingsley spraying saliva-lubricated variants of the F-word into the atmosphere like anti-aircraft fire for 10 solid minutes."[11] It was also described as "often enjoyable" but "massively uneven" by Variety.[12]
Awards and Nominations
Ben Kingsley's performance received a majority of the accolades given to Sexy Beast, winning Best Supporting Actor awards from the Broadcast Film Critics Association, Boston Society of Film Critics, Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association, Florida Film Critics Circle, San Diego Film Critics Society, Southeastern Film Critics Association and the Toronto Film Critics Association. He also was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award (losing to Ian McKellen for his performance in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring), a Golden Globe and an Academy Award (losing both to Jim Broadbent for his performance in Iris).
In addition, the film also won Best Director and Best Screenplay from the British Independent Film Awards and Special Recognition ("For excellence in filmmaking") from the National Board of Review.
DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray Release
In March 2008, Channel 4 re-released Sexy Beast on DVD and the now defunct HD DVD format in the UK, including a new commentary track with Kingsley and Jeremy Thomas, the film's producer. In June 2009, Channel 4 released a Blu-ray Disc of the film in the UK[13] which repackaged the HD DVD transfer and extras.
References
- ^ Wittmershaus, Eric. Review of Sexy Beast, Flak Magazine, July 11, 2001. Accessed February 4, 2008.
- ^ Sir Ben's Sexy honour, BBC News, December 31, 2001. Accessed February 4, 2008.
- ^ Total Film's list of The 50 Greatest Brit Flicks Ever, November 2004. Accessed February 4, 2008.
- ^ Sexy Beast at Rotten Tomatoes. Accessed February 4, 2008
- ^ Sexy Beast at Metacritic. Accessed February 4, 2008
- ^ Morris, Wesley. Kingsley a beauty in 'Sexy Beast'. His maniacal sadist adds frenzied edge, San Francisco Chronicle, March 15, 2002. Accessed February 4, 2008.
- ^ Gleiberman, Owen. Movie Review: Sexy Beast, Entertainment Weekly, June 22, 2001. Accessed February 4, 2008.
- ^ Edelstein, David. They Pull Me Back In: There's no escaping Ben Kingsley in the riotously entertaining Sexy Beast; The Fast and the Furious runs out of gas, Slate, June 22, 2001. Accessed February 4, 2008.
- ^ Travers, Peter. Sexy Beast:Review, Rolling Stone, June 15, 2001. Accessed February 4, 2008.
- ^ Turan, Kenneth. Sexy Beast: Stylish, but Very Nasty, Los Angeles Times, June 13, 2001. Accessed February 4, 2008.
- ^ Hunter, Stephen. 'Sexy Beast': Gandhi Goes Gangsta, Washington Post, June 22, 2001. Accessed February 4, 2008
- ^ Elley, Derek. Sexy Beast Review, Variety, September 21, 2000. Accessed February 4, 2008.
- ^ [Sexy Beast--Amazon.co.uk http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sexy-Beast-Blu-ray-Ray-Winstone/dp/B001U3EOGM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1245554551&sr=1-1]
External links
![Sexy Beast [Soundtrack]](http://content.answers.com/main/content/img/amg/pop_albums/cov200/dre800/e803/e80372la3g8.jpg)
