Layer Cake

In the role which probably got him consideration as the new James Bond, Daniel Craig stars as a man trying to apply business school techniques to drug dealing in the 2004 release Layer Cake. Sadly, neither his old school boss nor enough of the other individual contributors are on the same page and so, right at the start of this flick, Craig runs into trouble. Of course he does, how else would we have a story?

Playing a character whose name is never said despite either appearing in, or narrating through voiceover, every scene, Craig is assigned two key deliverables by fat and loud Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham) which are outside his area of expertise; neither has anything to do with the other except that with each milestone his own efforts get them tangled.

Directed by Matthew Vaughn from JJ Connolly’s script (based on his own novel) Layer Cake, in a good way, strongly reminded us of Gangster No. 1, probably because it too focuses on a smart, unnamed British gangster who narrates his attempt to bring a more modern strategy to the business. I wouldn’t rate this at quite the same level of quality because the Malcolm McDowell/Paul Bettany 2000 release much more strongly integrates the female subplot.

But its still pretty good and I can see why the Bond producers were interested in Daniel Craig. In a bit less than eight months, we’ll get to see if they cast the next Sean Connery or–IMO the worst of the first five–Roger Moore.

recommended