The Thug, the Soft and the Pragmatic... I had heard about "Sexy Beast" and the electrifying performance of Ben Kingsley as Don Logan but nothing I gathered came close to what the actual experience of the film brought.
Think about it, if someone tells you about a great performance as a gangster or a criminal, you expect ranges of emotions that cover intimidation, charisma, fearlessness or more nuanced traits such as cunning intelligence or faux-affability, the likes of Michael Corleone or Tony Montana with a zest of Joe Pesci but that's only because you haven't tasted enough of British crime pictures. Last time I was mind blown by a gangster performance was either Bob Hoskins in "A Long Good Friday" or young Richard Attenborough in "Brighton Rock" and if Don Logan is closer in temperament to Hoskins' Harold Shand, even Shand was a relatively reasonable man who only became more ruthless as chaos took him out his civilized zone.
Don Logan would be more of a Tommy DeVito with Shand's cockney accent and a little something that would make him feel at home in a Guy Ritchie or Martin McDonagh movie, and to think that it's Ben Kingsley, of all the actors, who was capable to completely reform his image as a venerable fatherly figure by portraying such a despicable character... it's even crazier he looks like his Oscar-winning role delightfully subverting his sociopathic behavior. Anyway, he was rightfully Oscar-nominated for that role as a man sent to intimidate people, to make them offers they couldn't refuse, to be as obnoxiously intrusive as it takes, a man who doesn't retort to guns but whose rapid-fire use of colorful words carries the tempo of a little Rottweiler barking right over your face. As I'm typing this, I still have this "nononono" melody invading my concentration.
Long story short, Logan is what you'll remember the most from "Sexy Beast" but on its own, the film is an extremely well-crafted and directed British gangster in the tradition of "Friday" but also some classics such as "Get Carter", "The Italian Job" etc. It's so directed by Jonathan Glazer that the heist itself could have made one hell of a story and it's hard to believe it only occupies the last third of the film, but what a finale, enhanced by the performance of Ian McShane as Teddy Bass, the ruthless mastermind, networking financial targets through decadent orgies, so intimidating that there were moments he could create as unequally unsettling feelings as Ben Kinglsey's Logan. Indeed, the less one barks, the more he makes you fear the bite.
There's one scene where he confronts Gal (Ray Winstone) whose explanation of a little fact came out as too sketchy to be trusted. Teddy doesn't take "I told you" as an answer, "Tell me again", he politely asks, that moment where we can sense fear discreetly exuding from Gal, and the way calmness can handle a symbolic weapon while violence has a more knife-like quality. At that point, it is obvious Gal is in far more trouble with Teddy than he ever was with Logan who was obviously a thug, and between the thug, the soft or the pragmatic we know who lasts in the business. "Sexy Beast" is basically a psychology of terror as inflicted toward its central character, Gal a former gangster who served in jail and retired to the Costa Del Sol with his loving wife Dee Dee (Amanda Redman), and his two friends Aitch (Cavin Kendall) and his wife Jackie (Julianne White)
While not as flashy and flamboyant, Winstone's performance is integral to the film's believability, it's his own softness that makes us fear Logan or Teddy and consequently fear for Gal. This is a man who enjoys basking in a well-earned idleness and enjoying every second of it, because he knows where he comes from and knows for sure he doesn't want to get back. He found peace, and the opening sequence shows him, fully tanned, a tad overweight, recovering from a hangover and then surviving a boulder that missed him by an inch before plunging into the swimming pool... everything goes fine until that night where Jackie has the face of someone bearing such bad news Ray would wish to have his face bashed by the rock.
Don Logan is coming, and he's likely to offer for a job.
We gather from the reactions something equivalent to the name Keyser Soze and it tells you a lot about how to write well a character, by preceding him by a menacing aura, like rolling the red carper before he comes. And then when Logan makes his arrival , boy wasn't I disappointed. A clear homage to the entrance of Harold Shand in "Friday", the coming of Logan shows him already on the verge of shutting down anybody who distracts him from his mission, this is clearly a man who lacks something called fear standing so tall, he makes Kingsley feel as tall as Ralph Fiennes, in fact, in some scenes I could even see a resemblance with "In Bruges" Harry.
The dialogues offer so much for Kingsley "why are you swearing, I'm not" "preparation, preparation" this is a man who's calling the shots, asking the questions, when he gives you money, you better accept it... he doesn't accept "no" an answer Don Logan, and no umbrella of self-control will be strong enough to protect you from the profanity missiles erupting from his mouth, he is clearly one of these psychos you better have on your side or find a way to remove from the picture. Easier said than done.
"Sexy Beast" delivers a multilayered portrayal of criminals as men entrapped in respective roles, you've got the thug, the soft and the pragmatic, and in the middle of that a lifestyle to preserve, a loving wife, and a spectacular heist that must be done, all that compacted in less than ninety minutes... simply said, a bloody good film, mate!