Layer Cake Review
By David Kempler
Half-Baked Cake
Good cake but it's missing the icing
From the outset of "Layer Cake" it is apparent that director Matthew Vaughn has some nice filmmaking skills and an artistic vision. We know about the artistic vision part because he keeps bashing us over the head trying to prove it to us. Don't get me wrong. The movie works in many ways. Where it fails is in its attempt to do too much to impress us with screen trickery, sleight of hand writing, and the constant smacking in the audience's face with red herrings.
"Layer Cake" is smart. It is very pleasurable viewing. It is exciting visually. Yet something prevents it from being part of the English contribution to great crime based movies like "Sexy Beast." Director Vaughn is obviously a movie buff. You can see that he is a fan of the American crime movie genre. The biggest problem is that it is too clear how much he adores films like Scorsese's masterpiece "Goodfellas" and Singer's "The Usual Suspects," two outstanding members of the crime movie hall of fame.
Like "Goodfellas", its central character narrates "Layer Cake". Daniel Craig, who does a fine job, and who has great screen presence, ably fills the shoes of Ray Liotta's similar character in "Goodfellas". Unfortunately, it is almost uncomfortable to watch certain scenes of "Layer Cake" because one cannot help thinking about "Goodfellas" and when you're thinking about one film while watching another, something just ain't working. Matthew Vaughn uses music here in much the same way as Scorsese did too. At its worst moment Vaughn even uses the Rolling Stones'
Gimme Shelter in a particularly harrowing scene. Scorsese used the same song. I laughed out loud when Vaughn had Mick Jagger's voice begging for shelter.
When it's not copying "Goodfellas," "Layer Cake" is copying "The Usual Suspects." In fact, I would bet big bucks that Vaughn is an enormous fan of "The Usual Suspects." Both films depend on fooling the audience over and over again until you feel like your head is going to spin off. And yet, I confess to enjoying "Layer Cake" even though it is so derivative. A big reason for this is that the cast is white-hot good. Besides Craig, who carries the film on his back for huge chunks of time, the supporting ensemble does a masterful job, and nobody does it better than Colm Meaney. He is so engrossing that I would love to see a movie centered on his character. A lot of you will recognize Colm even if you can't place how you know his face.
If you like good crime flicks, "Layer Cake" is worth a viewing. It doesn't fulfill all the way, but it is nevertheless worth a bite. Think of "Layer Cake" as two layers short of a good seven-layer cake.
