Layer Cake (film)

Layer Cake
Directed by	Matthew Vaughn
Produced by	Matthew Vaughn Adam Bohling Stephen Marks David Reid
Screenplay by	J. J. Connolly
Based on	Layer Cake  by J. J. Connolly
Starring	Daniel Craig Colm Meaney Sienna Miller Michael Gambon
Music by	Lisa Gerrard Ilan Eshkeri
Cinematography	Ben Davis
Editing by	Jon Harris
Studio	Marv Films
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures (UK) Sony Pictures Classics (US)
Release dates	1 October 2004 (2004-10-01)
Running time	105 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	£4,000,000 ($6.2 million)
Box office	£7,338,838 (worldwide)

Layer Cake (sometimes stylised as L4YER CAKƐ) is a 2004 British crime thriller produced and directed by Matthew Vaughn, in his directorial debut. The screenplay was written by J. J. Connolly, based on his novel of the same name.

The title refers to the social strata, especially in the British criminal underworld, as well as the numerous plot layers in the film.

Plot

An unnamed man, known only as XXXX, is a London underworld kingpin who has established himself in the cocaine business. Considering himself a businessman, he leaves the more violent aspects of the business to his contact Gene. Gene is assisted by fellow gangster Morty, who had previously spent ten years in prison. Having made his fortune, XXXX plans to retire from the business for good.

His plans go awry when his powerful supplier Jimmy Price sends him to track down Charlie, the teenage daughter of Price's associate, Eddie Temple, who has fled a rehabilitation centre with her drug-addicted boyfriend. To help track her down XXXX enlists the help of con men Cody and Tiptoes.

At the same time, Price instructs XXXX to organise the purchase and distribution of one million ecstasy tablets from a low-level gangster named The Duke. XXXX does not know the pills were stolen from a gang of Serbian war criminals in the Netherlands. Meanwhile, XXXX encounters The Duke's idiotic nephew, Sidney at a bar, and becomes attracted to Sidney's bored girlfriend Tammy. XXXX tries to broker the sale of the ecstasy to gangsters Trevor and Shanks, but they refuse, informing him of the drug's purloined nature and of the fact that the Serbians have sent a hitman, Dragan, to find the pills and kill those responsible for their theft. Because The Duke mentioned XXXX's name to the Serbians beforehand, he too is now in danger. Members of The Duke's gang soon begin turning up dead and The Duke himself goes missing.

XXXX arranges a tryst with Tammy but before it can be consummated he is kidnapped by henchmen of Eddie Temple. Temple informs him that Jimmy had lost 13 million pounds in a failed investment in Africa and is now hoping to sell the pills to recoup his losses. He demands instead that XXXX sell the pills to him, and plays him a tape indicating that Jimmy has been a long term informant for Scotland Yard and intends to betray XXXX to the police as soon as the deal is done. XXXX shoots and kills Jimmy but does so with a gun that Gene had used to commit a prior murder. XXXX then discovers that his accountant, whom Jimmy referred to him, has embezzled his money and disappeared. Gene and Morty, after being given evidence of Jimmy's snitching, recognise XXXX as the new boss and show him the corpse of The Duke, whom Gene had killed along with Duke's girlfriend, Slasher, when the latter threatened to alert the police about the pills.

XXXX delivers the severed head of The Duke to Dragan as a peace offering. To recoup something from the fiasco, XXXX arranges a con in which the police appear to raid The Duke's hideout and confiscate the drugs, which satisfies Dragan. In reality, the police are Cody and Tiptoes, who return the drugs to XXXX. However, when he attempts to sell them to Eddie Temple, Temple steals the drugs from them at gunpoint and gives XXXX a "welcome to the layer cake" in the form of a membership to the Stoke Park Country Club of which both he and Jimmy were members. However, suspecting betrayal, XXXX has arranged for Trevor and Shanks to steal the drugs from Temple's men. The gang has assembled for lunch at the Stoke Park Club, proclaiming XXXX their new boss. However, he demurs, stating his intention to stick to his planned retirement. Leaving the club with Tammy he is shot without warning by Sidney, his fate left uncertain.

Production

Queen's Gate Mews, SW7, was used as the filming location for the home of Daniel Craig's character XXXX.^[1]

Cast

Soundtrack

The soundtrack from Layer Cake is composed of 14 tracks.

The Rolling Stones song "Gimme Shelter" also features in the film but does not appear on the soundtrack album.

Reception

Box office performance

Critical reception

Layer Cake received positive reviews, with an 81% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average of 7.1/10 based on 134 reviews. The critical consensus states that it is "A stylized, electric British crime thriller". ^[7] The film has an average score of 73 based on 30 reviews on Metacritic.^[8]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times remarked; "The movie was directed by Matthew Vaughn, who produced "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch," and this one works better than those films because it doesn't try so hard to be clever and tries harder to be menacing". Of Craig's performance, he said, "Craig is fascinating here as a criminal who is very smart, and finds that is not an advantage because while you might be able to figure out what another smart person is about to do, dumbos like the men he works for are likely to do anything". He gave the film 3.5/4 stars.

Daniel Craig's starring role in the film has been cited as the performance that led to his high-profile casting as James Bond.^[9]

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Layer Cake

• Layer Cake at the Internet Movie Database
• Layer Cake at Rotten Tomatoes
• Layer Cake at allmovie
• Layer Cake at Box Office Mojo
• BBC interview with Matthew Vaughn