The crime film bearing that title is the technically proficient but unpleasantly seamy story of an unnamed cocaine dealer in London (Daniel Craig) who prides himself on the clean efficiency of his methods, and looks forward to living the high life after an early retirement.
But wouldn't you know, before that can happen he's caught up in the machinations of crime kingpin Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham) and Price's high-powered cohort, Eddie Temple (Michael Gambon), and a stolen shipment of Ecstasy pills after which everyone is scrambling.
Director Matthew Vaughn's thriller is too complex for its own good. First, there's a plot that's so difficult to follow you'll soon find yourself asking, "Who cares?" Then there are those tricky-to-decipher accents. Add to that a flashy but essentially empty presentation, and -- though perhaps appropriate for the underworld milieu -- more uses of the "F" word than in any film in recent memory. The result is unsavory, not to mention tedious, entertainment.
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Layer Cake
