9/16/03 -- From
Art Snob:
I’ll
Sleep When I’m Dead
Clive Owen and director Mike Hodges team up a second time, following
their success in 1998 with CROUPIER. This is a very straightforward
revenge drama, heavy on atmosphere and ambiance, but a bit lacking
in tension. Owen plays a former gangster who has left crime and
city life for menial forestry work in the countryside. His younger
brother,
played by BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM’S Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, is a freewheeling
small-time drug dealer who incurs the wrath of mobster Malcolm McDowell,
suffers a major indignity, and winds up committing suicide while fully
dressed in a bathtub. Drawn back to the city, Owen isn’t satisfied
with the coroner’s report, and gets a second opinion … one
that reveals the nature of the indignity. From then on, it’s
pretty much a detective drama as he draws ever closer to McDowell
and revenge.
It’s not in a league with THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY or a Guy Ritchie
gangster movie, but it’s still solid…..every bit as good
as CROUPIER and Hodges’ other gangster movie of note, GET CARTER,
if not better. And there’s an interesting extra: despite Owen’s
claim that he isn’t interested in being the next James Bond,
there are scenes late in the movie where you’d swear that he’s
AUDITIONING for the role.
Thanks, padawan