I first watched 'Love, Honour and Obey' back when it was released in 2000. Seeing as I've always been reasonably into British gangster films, in short, I thought it was pretty cool. However, I never had it on DVD and have only just got round to re-watching it a good fifteen years later. Despite my good memories of the film, I begrudgingly have to admit that it hasn't aged all that well.
Perhaps I was so into Guy Ritchie's style of cockney gangster flick of the late nineties/early 2000s that I somehow lumped this into the same nostalgically-good category. I don't want to be too harsh on it, because there are definitely some good points and I didn't totally hate it – it just let me down on a repeat viewing. We meet Johnny Lee Miller's character who is pretty much a London nobody and dreams of working his way into 'the mob' who it just so happens that his childhood friend, Jude Law, is already related to.
The overall impression I got after the credits rolled was that it felt more like a 'made-for-TV' movie. And, upon looking into it, I did find that it was originally shown on the BBC before its release on DVD (or VHS in those days!). It's rare that I notice the 'direction' of a film so much. Normally, a film is cut together so smoothly that you can follow the story at all times. However, here scenes just sort of end as if the film cut out mid-dialogue. It really is a bit jarring after a while. Plus there are some scenes that don't really go anywhere and feel a little out of place in the scheme of things. And, while we're on the topic of odd scenes, this film does struggle to know what it wants to be. At first glance it's a gangster film, but it's never really dark and gritty enough to be that nasty. It throws weird comedic scenes and plot-lines in there which wouldn't be out of place in an American Pie film. However, again, it's not funny enough to be a comedy and, like the editing, it bounces all over the place.
But, like I say, even now I didn't feel I totally wasted my time watching it. For a start it contains a stellar cast, headed by Ray Winstone, Johnny Lee Miller and Jude Law (the less said about Sadie Frost's performance the better). However, the stand-out performance comes from a truly menacing Rhys Ifans for his rival villain. For some reason they're all called by their actors' first names – weird, but interesting. Then you have the karaoke scenes which really are quite fun (not to mention catchy!).
There was still just about enough nostalgia here to entertain me and, if you're a major fan of any of the leads, you'll probably find enjoyment during its hour and a half run-time. However, I can't see it being regarded as much of a classic in the long run. It was kind of trying to ride the coattails of Lock, Stock and hope no one really noticed. I did at the time, but it doesn't now.
