Sexy Beast
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| Sexy Beast | |
|---|---|
 original film poster |
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| Produced by | Jeremy Thomas |
| Written by | Louis Melles David Scinto |
| Starring | Ray Winstone Ben Kingsley Amanda Redman Ian McShane |
| Distributed by | Fox Searchlight Pictures (USA) |
| Release date(s) | September 13, 2000 (Toronto Film Festival premiere) |
| Running time | 89 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Sexy Beast (2000) is a British film directed by Jonathan Glazer, starring Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley and Ian McShane. It was Glazer's debut feature film, having previously been a director of music videos, such as "Rabbit In Your Headlights" for British electronic group UNKLE.
The film earned Kingsley an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor. In 2004 the magazine Total Film named Sexy Beast the 15th greatest British film of all time.
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[edit] Story
Ex-con and expert safe-cracker Gary "Gal" Dove (Ray Winstone) has served his time behind bars and has blissfully retired to a Spanish villa paradise with a wife he adores, Deedee (Amanda Redman). He is joined as well by his long-time friend Aitch (Cavan Kendall) and his wife, Jackie (Julianne White). The idyll is shattered by the arrival of an old criminal associate, the psychopathic mobster Don Logan (Ben Kingsley), intent on persuading Gal to return to London for one last big job. Desperate not to sacrifice his enchanted existence, Dove is drawn into an explosive battle of wills with Logan.
Logan is backed by gang boss Teddy Bass (Ian McShane), who, after a coupling with a banker named Harry (James Fox), has decided to pull a job on Harry's highly secure (and well furnished) bank vault. Logan, however, has his own agenda. In Spain, he terrorises the quartet, and what was a mission from the top has become a personal vendetta against Gal's happiness along with bitterness at his own inability to make relationships work; it's mentioned several times throughout the film that Logan had at least one sexual dalliance with Jackie.
[edit] Notes
- On the Region 1 DVD commentary for the movie, Kingsley summarized Logan's character as "the unhappiest man in the world".
- Kingsley based his performance in part on his grandmother, whom he described as "an extremely violent and unpleasant woman." [1]
- This film marked the final screen role of Cavan Kendall
- This film featured a humanoid, demonic rabbit, possibly the "Sexy Beast" referred to in the title, in several sequences. The 2001 film Donnie Darko also featured a similar demonic rabbit in a more prominent role.
[edit] Reviews
The film has received praise from film critic for its excellent performances and characterisation, which lift it above the conventions of the standard British gangster caper. It received high praise from writers at the San Francisco Chronicle, Entertainment Weekly, Slate, Rolling Stone and the Los Angeles Times, but it was panned by the Washington Post as "Ben Kingsley spraying saliva-lubricated variants of the F-word into the atmosphere like anti-aircraft fire for 10 solid minutes." It was also described as "massively uneven" by Variety.
However, almost all critics have agreed that Ben Kingsley's performance is an example of diverse acting ability and show-stealing. McShane has been noted as the real "beast" of the film, intimated in the aforementioned S.F. Chronicle review.
