Film: Sexy Beast

Director: Jonathan Glazer
Genre: Crime Drama
Source: UK (2001)
Rating: R
Location/Format: Netflix Streaming
Grade: B-

Stone and water go head to head throughout Sexy Beast, from the boulder that lands in a swimming pool at the film's opening to the big heist late in the film. Perhaps that could stand as a metaphor for Ben Kingsley's Don Logan, the immovable object and concrete wall that forces himself into the middle of the life of Gal, a retired thief trying to just enjoy life in Spain. Or is Don the water--enveloping, consuming, always finding another way into a crack, nearly drowning everyone and everything around him.

Clearly this is Kingsley's film. He doesn't show up for the first 20 to 30 minutes of the film, but his arrival is foreshadowed, talked about, and feared by the other Gal and his girlfriend (maybe wife?) Deedee, as well as their friends Aitch and Jackie. The anxiety and despair with which the other characters discuss him sets the stage for his explosive arrival, trying to recruit Gal for one last job. As the two couples become suddenly and seriously uncomfortable in what should be their retirement paradise, Don glares around the pool, ill fitting in this Mediterranean setting, evoking the violence and grime of the life they left behind in his every growled statement. Kinglsey is terrifying, coiled fury just waiting to be unleashed, and the escalating tension between the five ultimately has to go somewhere. The boulder may force itself into the pool, but the displaced water has to go somewhere.

Other than Kingsley's intense performance (and Ray Winstone's miserable desperation as Gal), I have to admit the film did not do much for me. Gal's vision (or is it a filmmaker's metaphor? or both?) of the raging beast that is Don was less effective than Kingsley himself, and the chaotic editing of the film's climactic revelations was more off-putting than mind blowing.

But Kinglsey's performance is still worth it. He is dynamite, both explosive and fantastic. I can understand where the Oscar nomination came from. 

Alternate Film Title: "Ray Winstone in Speedos"