I hate to say that for all the huge praise thrown about by critics reviewing this film, I was a little disappointed by "Sexy Beast". It was good, very good in some ways, but something about it just didn't work for me.

Ray Winstone plays Gary Dove, who is a man I am led to believe used to work on large scale robberies composed of random teams of hoods. Earning enough money that way, he has retired to a sunny villa in Spain when we first meet him. (Is Spain the English equivalent of Florida?) Here he seems to enjoy his life with a loving wife, who used to be a porn star. They are friends with another couple, who most likely did similar work to what they did, only maybe they aren't quite as retired.

In an unusual early scene, Winstone is enjoying himself relaxing while standing next to his pool, when suddenly a huge boulder comes rolling down past him, barely missing his head and lands in his swimming pool. I at first thought this was foreboding something, like the Kingsley character rolling through his life practically killing him. Or maybe it was showing how unlucky he could be sometimes. It might have meant both, or neither, from what I can tell, but it certainly plays an important part to the plot.

Shortly after the rock incident, Winstone is told by his friend that Don Logan is coming to town. This stops all conversation at the table and we get the impression that this is one very scary character. Anyone who saw Gary Oldman's directorial debut of "Nil by Mouth" will recognize Winstone as the very scary head of the household. But how scary is Don Logan? Well, considering how hard these rough gentlemen seem to be, and also considering how casually Winstone reacted when a huge boulder barely misses him, their blatant abject terror at the mention that Logan is coming to town tells us how truly scary this man must be.

Don Logan is played by Ben Kingsley, and the first shot of Kingsley walking through an airport is an amazing piece of work. He is truly terrifying looking, and I'm not sure why. He doesn't look that much different than he did in Ghandi almost 20 years ago, but something about his facial expression and the way he walks just seems to warn us not to get in his way. Winstone is a large man, who can be very mean looking. Yet at no point in the film does he ever seem as scary as Kingsley does in every scene.

Logan has come to 'ask' Winstone to be part of a high profit, quick and easy theft back in London. I put the word 'ask' in parentheses because when Logan appears to be asking, he is really telling him that he is now part of the crew. As a matter of fact, after many rehearsals, Winstone manages to finally tell Logan that he has retired, and that's that. Well, Logan just doesn't accept no for an answer.

Eventually Winstone will find his way back to England to do the job, but it won't be in the way, or for the reasons, that you might think. The movie lives during the scenes in Spain, and the portion of the movie that takes place in England isn't a dramatic conclusion that the film was leading up to.

Kingsley's Don Logan seems more than just a mean person. He is truly crazy. We see him inexplicably pee on a floor for no reason. We also watch him talking to himself in the mirror trying to tell himself not to say too much, and to stay cool. Then out of the blue, he charges into Winstone's bedroom and hits his sleeping friend in the head screaming and insisting that he take the job. He isn't a physically threatening man, but everyone knows that you don't dare cross him, verbally or physically. Kingsley is good here. Very good. His name will probably be thrown about during the academy award or golden globe nominations if the film is released on video right after Christmas.

This is the director, Jonathan Glazer's, first film. He definitely seemed influenced by the other criminal movies coming out of Britain these days. Guy Ritchie and Danny Boyle are definitely influences here. We see a lot of weird camera work, but not consistently throughout the movie. Most of it works, but not all of it. There are some slow motion shots and some odd points of view. But some shots, like the rolling camera representing the boulder in the beginning, just seem odd.

There is also some unusual visual symbolism. Early in the film we see Winstone, his friend, and a young boy try to shoot a rabbit in the desert wilderness. It should be an easy shot, but both guns they try to use fails, and the rabbit lives. The guns are described as 'cowboy' guns, because of their pump action. Later, Winstone has a dream of a large rabbit demon coming to kill him, and he is powerless to stop it. If it sounds weird trying to imagine a rabbit demon, imagine a man with the head of a rabbit, covered in dark fur, and whose large ears stand up straight for about half way up before flopping back down, almost looking like horns. And of course it is wearing cowboy boots. I think this giant cowboy rabbit demon symbolized danger, because it kept coming and coming at him in visions, in place of other people.

Another portion of the film takes place in England before the boulder incident takes place. We see Logan's boss, Teddy, and the owner of a high security bank meet at an orgy. The bank owner is Harry, played by James Fox. I'm not exactly sure what happened between the two men, but Teddy finds himself with the strong desire to rob his bank. Teddy is also a very dangerous man, but it comes out in a very different way than Kingsley's Logan does. It is interesting to study their opposite ways of getting others to say what they want him to. Where Logan repeats questions over and over again, angrier and angrier, until the person relents, Teddy instead asks once, gives a long pause and tells the person what he wants him to say. Both methods work. It is a very shocking and disturbing conversation Teddy & Winstone have with Harry, right before he gets Winstone to tell him what he already knows, but wants to hear.

I did like this film, but I am stuck with a few nagging questions: Why exactly was Winstone chosen for this job. I can't think of any reason why he was needed. It involved some underwater work, and we know Winstone loves to swim, but so did all the other men doing the job. I also want to know exactly how they got that boulder out of the pool, and into a rather ordinary sized truck?

But my biggest question though, might be because I don't understand English slang. Anyone reading this, who knows the answer for sure, please let me know. At the end, when Teddy tells Winstone that he is going to get a 'ten-er' for doing the job, what does this mean? Does it mean he is getting 10%, or does it mean 10,000 pounds, or is it slang for meaning nothing at all? The third choice could be it because of something he takes from his pocket at the very end. Another theory is that he says he is getting ten, but Winstone doesn't know what that means either, and then when asked if he has change for a twenty, this lets us know that it was only ten pounds, not ten thousand, or ten percent like Winstone may have hoped. I hate not knowing what this meant, but it may not have been an important part of the story.

The film is only about ninety minutes long, but feels much longer. I mean this in a good way. The story is told efficiently. The acting is usually outstanding, but I still can only give it 4 stars here because something just didn't connect it all together for me.

Note: On my own web page, I only gave the movie 3½ stars.



Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older