| 44 Inch Chest | |
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Theatrical Release Poster |
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| Directed by | Malcolm Venville |
| Produced by | Richard Brown Steve Golin |
| Written by | Louis Mellis David Scinto |
| Starring | Ray Winstone Ian McShane John Hurt Tom Wilkinson |
| Music by | Angelo Badalamenti |
| Cinematography | Daniel Landin |
| Editing by | Rick Russell |
| Distributed by | Momentum Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 19 October 2009 (London Film Festival) 15 January 2010 (United Kingdom) |
| Running time | 95 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $247,553 |
44 Inch Chest is a 2009 British film starring Ray Winstone, John Hurt, Tom Wilkinson and Ian McShane. The script was written by Louis Mellis and David Scinto, who wrote another British gangster drama Sexy Beast, and produced by Richard Brown and Steve Golin (Babel, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). It is the debut feature from British commercial director and photographer Malcolm Venville. The cinematography is by Daniel Landin. The score is a collaboration between Angelo Badalamenti and Massive Attack.
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Colin Diamond (Winstone) is a successful car salesman who, after discovering his wife Liz is having an affair, has an emotional breakdown. His friends convince him to kidnap his wife's lover and then encourage him to torture and kill him.
Diamond's partners in crime are suave homosexual gambler Meredith (McShane), crotchety and bigoted Old Man Peanut (Hurt), the down to earth Archie (Wilkinson) and the combustible Mal (Dillane), who by turns encourage Colin's lust for revenge and sympathise with his situation, and conspire to emotionally and mentally torture Liz's new man, Loverboy, a "Frog" waiter, first by locking him in a cupboard and threatening him, and then tying him up and subjecting him to humiliating verbal and physical assault.
Parts of the story occur in flashback, with Colin discovering Liz's infidelity and the after effects of it, which then affect the present, in which he tries to come to terms with the shame and torment that this brings to him. Parts of the story also appear to happen inside Colin's mind, with him trying to reconcile with himself, using his friends as representations of his own turmoil, and his resolving of the situation.
44 Inch Chest has received mixed to negative reviews. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 40% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 77 reviews, with an average score of 5.2/10.[2] The Daily Telegraph gave the film 3/5 stars, calling the film "A plum actors' piece which both gains and loses points by soberly stalling its own plot." The News of The World gave the film 4/5. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian was less enthusiastic, giving the film 2/5 saying "The film talks the talk – in fact, it talks and talks and talks the talk. But the walk isn't happening."