Reviews
Premiere - ...This is Kingsley's best performance in years, maybe his best ever....SEXY BEAST is a deft, remarkably tight [film]..., New York Times - ...[Kingsley's] performance jolts the movie like an exposed high-voltage wire....[Glazer] clearly has a knack for quick visual thinking and a snappy rhythmic sense..., Film Comment - ...SEXY BEAST sizzles....[The film] constantly surprises, unfolding and reinventing itself in unexpected ways..., Movieline - ...The cast is uniformly excellent....This is a highly imaginative piece of filmmaking -- and one hell of a scary ride..., Rolling Stone - ...It's Kinsley who will fire you up. He's dynamite. Ditto the movie..., USA Today - "...Its casting is so right and its 90-minute pacing so crisp that what emerges is one of the year's few sleepers..." -- 3 1/2 out of 4 stars, Los Angeles Times - ...Style that burns....SEXY BEAST also has a strong plot and a pair of excellent performances...
Additional Information
Jonathan Glazer, the award-winning director of advertisements and music videos, presents his feature film debut with this lushly photographed, expertly written, and brilliantly performed convention-defying gangster film. SEXY BEAST jettisons the slickness of the LOCK, STOCK & TWO SMOKING BARRELS school in favor of intricate character development. In its opening shot, Gary "Gal" Dove (Ray Winstone)--a big-bellied ex-gangster with a cockney accent--is sunning himself pool side at his luxe villa on Spain's Costa Del Sol when a gigantic boulder hurtles down a hillside, almost killing him. This near miss serves as a troublesome portent, but it hardly affects Gal, who is immersed in his tranquil life with wife Deedee (Amanda Redman), who he adores with earnest fervor. However, Gal's peace is soon shattered by the arrival of Don Logan (Ben Kingsley, using his shaved skull, spare frame, and ramrod posture to pose as an anti-Gandhi), a brutal former accomplice looking to recruit Gal for a heist. A battle of wills ensues when Gal refuses to leave retirement, and the frighteningly intense Don refuses to take no for an answer. Glazer expertly heightens the film's tension using shifts in the pacing and flashbacks, while Kingsley and Winstone imbue their characters with gorgeous life.