Directed by: Roger Donaldson
Starring: Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Richard Lintern
Rated: R
Parental Notes: This is not a kids movie (plenty of nudity/sensuality and a bit of violence and kinkiness for good measure) though teens may enjoy it.
Heist movies are traditionally full of excitement, plot twists, and beautiful women, and "The Bank Job" has all of those in spades -- and many of the women are topless 70s-style beauties to boot. It also has the added cache of being based on a true story.
In 1971, a group of small-time, rather unprofessional thieves broke into Lloyd's Bank and stole an amount in excess of 500,000 British Pounds (worth over $5 million today) from the safe deposit boxes in its vault. It would have been an ordinary heist, save for one thing: a ham radio operator had eavesdropped on the thieves' walkie-talkie conversation with their lookouts and alerted the police, who were too incompetent to track down which bank was being robbed. The papers, radio, and television news were full of the story -- but a few days after the robbery, all coverage stopped, and the whole matter was rapidly hushed up.
Once it was revealed the government was involved in the hushing (they sent out a D-Notice on the story, which strongly encouraged all media outlets to stop talking about it), people got curious. If it was just a regular bank robbery, why hush it up? We're offered one theory in "The Bank Job." Based on the events as known to the public and on information from an anonymous "Deep Throat" style source, it provides a strange blend of fact and fiction.
Unfortunately, it also tries to add in a little too much of everything else. There are more subplots and themes here than you can shake a stick at, and they don't blend together very smoothly. The criminals are genially incompetent but somehow able to pull off a complex double-cross in order to get away scott free. Shady car dealer Terry Leather (Jason Statham, "War") is supposed to have a bit of a thing with ex-model double-dealer Martine (Saffron Burrows, "The Guitar"), the lovely lady who comes to him with the robbery scheme, but also be a devoted husband and father of two. The film has a light touch with coy sex scenes and elegantly half-naked women, but it also includes a somewhat harrowing bit of torture and several brutally quick executions.
The acting is solid, although most of the characters are rather simplistic. Statham is in standard form, with his hair short and his stubble only slightly shorter (Terry must keep both carefully trimmed, as they never vary in length no matter how little sleep he's gotten). Burrows is beautiful and untrustworthy, as a criminal dame should be. As porn king Lew Vogel, David Suchet puts in a turn as a thoroughly nasty piece of work who is made a bit sympathetic through his recurrent pained expressions -- the poor fellow has a nasty kidney stone. Richard Lintern's government agent is ominously slippery, which lends a nice touch of suspense to his character's scenes.
The heist itself and the espionage after are a good roller-coaster ride, if you can overlook the uneven add-ons. The mixture of government conniving, gritty heist stuff, and a fairly convincing 70s look and feel is all good fun. It's just a pity that the film doesn't quite gel.
Written and Directed by: Martin McDonagh
Starring: Brendan Gleeson, Colin Farrell, Ralph Fiennes, Clemence Poesy, Jordan Prentice
Rated: Rated R for strong bloody violence, pervasive language, and some drug use.
Parental Notes: This is not a film for youngsters. The violence in it is graphic in a realistic way rather than a cartoony one, and thus fairly disturbing.
Bruges, for those who have missed the previews for the film, is in Belgium, and is the best-preserved medieval city in the country. It looks, as more than one character in "In Bruges" observes, like something out of a fairy tale. It's all cobbled streets, medieval towers, and museums full of gruesome paintings of sinners being punished.
Sinners being punished is a central theme of the film. Hit men Ray (Colin Farrell, "Miami Vice") and Ken (Brendan Gleeson, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix") have been sent to Bruges by their boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes, also last seen in "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix") after Ray thoroughly botched a hit in the UK. They've been ordered to play tourist and wait for Harry to call. Ray feels this is unreasonably cruel, possibly because there is nothing in Bruges to distract him from his guilt and self-flagellation. Ken's punishment is to keep hothead Ray out of trouble while trying to actually enjoy the sights himself.
Their time in Bruges starts to look a bit better to Ray when he runs across a film crew. He's delighted, especially when he spots the gorgeous Chloe (Clemence Poesy, yet another Harry Potter alumn) and a dwarf, Jimmy (Jordan Prentice). Although he starts on shaky footing with both, he winds up dating Chloe and sharing cocaine with Jimmy, who winds up ranting about the coming race war which will pit (among others) all the white dwarfs against all the black ones.
Ray's first date with Chloe may well set a record for honesty -- he tells her he's a hit man, and she tells him she sells drugs to film crews. Then she takes him home, where her skinhead ex-boyfriend tries to rob him, much to her dismay (she told the skinhead not to come tonight; they rob disposable tourists together, not guys she actually likes). Ray disables the skinhead and despairs that he just knew a girl like her ("someone nice") couldn't like a guy like him. She insists she likes him quite a bit and asks him to wait for her while she takes her ex off to the hospital.
Just when things seem to be looking up for Ray, Harry calls. I wouldn't dream of giving away what he wants -- "In Bruges" is one of those rare gems where you cannot tell from the first few minutes how the remainder of the film is going to go, and that is to be treasured. I will say this: the plot grows in a beautifully organic way out of the characters, who are incredibly peculiar and yet somehow also very believable, possibly because they are so consistent.
"In Bruges" is a delight, provided you can handle the fairly graphic violence (gunshots and a person plummeting to one of those beautiful cobblestone streets). It is by turns darkly comic, tragic, slapsticky, sweet, insane, and drenched in brutality. It is not to be missed by anyone who is feeling jaded by the standard Hollywood pap.