Sherlene SoonColin Farrell plays Mitchel, an ex-convict looking for a proper job to start over. Facing cliché obstacles, he fights his way and gets entangled in a bloody mess, leaving him with no choice but to take drastic measures.
When he first becomes a free man, he is given 2 choices for his future- To be the bodyguard of a cloistered starlet or to join forces with a mob boss and help him fight his battles.
It’s not easy for Mitchel when his friend Billy (Ben Chaplin) tries ways and means to get Mitchel to go back to his past life. However, mesmerized by the starlet, Charlotte (Keira Knightley), Mitchel quickly agrees and stays to become her handy man. Lo and behold, they fall in love and of course, sex was very much involved.
Mitchel rejects Gant (Ray Winstone), the mob boss, and gets thrown into a whirlwind of events. Everyone around him gets killed off one by one. If Gant can’t have him, no one else could. Gant admires Mitchel’s talent as a gangster but didn’t respect him enough to let him lead a free and changed life.
The whole movie revolves around the same few things – love, sex, vulgarities and violence. A lot of violence. Even for someone like me who can watch Saw V while having lunch, found it a little over the top and unnecessary.
With heavily accented English, it got a bit more on the annoying side than the sexy British accent I expected. It got in the way of trying to understand what was going on and the mumbling and whispering at time certainly didn’t help.
Based on a novel by Ken Bruen and adapted by William Monahan for screen, this story is better off in a book and left to our imagination. With some randomly framed shots and cuts, it’s obvious that this was Monahan’s directorial debut.
Chemistry was missing between the two leads; it’s awkward. Something was missing and they didn’t find that spark even till the end of the movie. Kiera Knightley also looked more like a weathered mother than a cloistered starlet. She looked dead half the time and the other half she’s smoking away.
There’s not much to see except cliché gangster problems and lots of murder, running around and smoking. It gets a bit dull after you realize the problems are just repeating over and over.
The movie is way too avant-garde for my taste, but it may just suit yours. Who knows, try it out and decide if you like it for yourself.
Rating: 1/5
Release Date: May 26
Directed by: William Monahan
Starring: Colin Farrell, Keira Knightley, Ray Winstone
Rating: M18 (Coarse Language and Nudity)
Runtime: 107 minutes
Genre: Action