MIKE Hodges's intriguing thriller is about a man obsessed with his past deeds and his present feelings of emptine s s. Clive Owen plays Will Graham, once a big man in Brixton (his name is bandied about like a legend), now living in a camper van in Wales, working in the forest, silent and unwashed, an inner darkness threatening to burst through his skin.

Back in London, his younger brother Davey (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is dealing drugs to rich blondes.

He is cute and cool and dresses with delicate care: everyone admires him.

But when Will tries to get in touch, Davey's phone rings off the hook.

Perturbed by this more than he can understand, Will feels forced to drive south to investigate, but the sight of Brixton makes him vomit, such is the intensity of his anxiety. Will's return causes a ripple. There are people about who would rather see him dead (Malcolm McDowell, Ken Stott) and others (Charlotte Rampling, Sylvia Syms) who want him to be the man he was, instead of a misanthrope in an anorak come to rattle their cage.

Will endures all of this with a passive acceptance, then carefully, frighteningly, he locates the source of this strength and acts.

Hodges films London restlessly, as though searching for some kind of relief.

We are taken from cafes to flats to streets to houses to morgues to garages, in short unsentimental scenes while he drums up an odd, powerful mood of apprehensiveness.

The atmosphere is one of darkly lit desperation - you know from the very start that the film will move towards a lonely finish.

Incidentally, if Owen isn't cast as James Bond after his turn in this, those responsible are crackpots.

However droll and sophisticated Bond might be, his moral temperature is absolutely zero, and Owen has the requisite unknowableness and cruelty in his face for the part.

Time Out April 28, 2004 Copyright 2004 Time Out Group Time Out April 28, 2004

HEADLINE: 'I'll Sleep When I'm Dead' Dir Mike Hodges, BODY: Will Graham (Clive Owen) has changed. . . or has he? He used to be respected, even feared, around his south east London manor, but then he gave up crime for isolation and anonymity in a camper van in darkest Wales, doing odd jobs in the forests, minding his own business, lying low. Some of those back home might likehim six feet lower, so the one person he communicates with - by public phone only - is his kid brother Davey (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), whose criminality tends to a pettier, less violent variety than that of Will's former rivals. But when Will's calls get no reply, he returns to investigate. . . and some are unhappy he's back on their turf. Has he changed, or has he a longer visit in mind?

In some ways the plot of Mike Hodges' latest resembles 'Get Carter', but where that film leavened its brutality with black humour, the tone here is darker, more nocturnal. Together, Hodges' judiciously pared-back direction and Trevor Preston's pleasingly terse script create a bluesy urban riff on a certain kind of gangland masculinity - at once homoerotic and homophobic - and its twisted ethics of shame, status, revenge and redemption.

With its laconic protagonist beautifully played by Owen, its gallery of crediblecharacters (the impressive cast also includes Malcolm McDowell, Jamie Foreman, Sylvia Syms, Charlotte Rampling and Ken Stott), and a wonderfully sustained subterranean mood, the film calls to mind Jean-Pierre Melville. In short, the simplicity is deceptive, the stylisation subtle, the whole thing properly provocative, adult and intelligent.

Mail on Sunday (London), May 2, 2004 nCopyright 2004 Associated Newspapers Ltd.

HEADLINE: Hard men, odd faces and bad grammar BYLINE: JASON SOLOMONS

BODY: Also Showing Mike Hodges, the director behind rockhard Michael Caine classic Get Carter, has never fulfilled the promise of his early career.

But the gambling thriller Croupier and this week's I'll Sleep When I'm Dead have rekindled a spark in one of British cinema's lost talents.

With its Spillane-like title, actually taken from a Warren Zevon song, this is a gangland noir that flits in and out of London's shadows and peers through rain-streaked windows of dodgy Mercs.

With director of photography Mike Garfath, Hodges has conjured up the most atmospheric film portrait of London's bleak, concrete impassivity since The Long Good Friday.

Clive Owen plays Will, a notorious hardman like Caine in Get Carter avenging the death of his brother. Will left London three years ago, we're never quite told why, and has been living like a wild animal in the forests of Wales. His return has different sides of the criminal fraternity sweating and salivating.

Owen turns in a huge performance, traipsing bearlike through the streets after his prey. His path is populated by henchmen and honchos (Jamie Foreman, Malcolm McDowell, Ken Stott); a rogues' gallery of odd faces and bad grammar.

Charlotte Rampling is a coldly sceptical ex-lover unsure how to cope.

'Forget the city,' she tells Will. 'It will destroy you.' Hodges' vision is creepy and clammy. You never know what will happen next, where a character will lead you or when Owen might explode.

George Melly described Get Carter as like drinking neat gin first thing in the morning; I'll Sleep When I'm Dead is the violent vomiting that follows.

Sunday Mirror, May 2, 2004 Copyright 2004 MGN Ltd. May 2, 2004, Sunday BYLINE: MARK ADAMS BODY: I'LL SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD

THE STARS: Clive Owen, Charlotte Rampling, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Malcolm McDowell, Ken Stott, Jamie Foreman.

THE STORY: Will Graham (Owen) is a notoriously tough London gangster on a self-imposed exile in rural Wales. When his drug-dealing brother Davey (Rhys-Meyers) kills himself, he returns to the Smoke to find out the background to his brother's death. His arrival back in town is greeted with enthusiasm by old friends (including ex-girlfriend Helen, played by Rampling) and with concern by an old gang rival Turner (Stott). His trail leads him to cold-hearted businessman Boad (McDowell), who knows the sordid truth about the death.

WHAT'S GOOD? Clive Owen continues to exhibit the star quality that has led to many pundits pointing to him as the next James Bond. He starts the film bearded and grungy, though he ends it booted and suited. This is an intelligent adult revenge drama, directed by the talented Mike Hodges (the man whose first film was the classic Get Carter, and who made the acclaimed Croupier with Owen). It tackles dark themes (at the core is the issue of male rape) and makes little concession to popcorn cinema. An impressive cast help give this well-structured film a tough, sharp, urban drama.

WHAT'S BAD? It is hard to feel too much sympathy for the tight-lipped Graham, who offers little by way of background. And there are a batch of strong secondary characters (played by the likes of Stott and Rampling) that are not fully developed.

HOW LONG IS IT? A tough 102 mins.

FINAL VERDICT: Smart revenge drama.

Thanks, Chris