Essex Boys

BBC America had this 2000 mobster flick on their Brit Movie night last Sunday. It’s got Sean Bean, Alex Kingston and Tom Wilkerson in what I saw posited as an English Goodfellas, and I loves me my Goodfellas. In the end Essex Boys was okay but not great; the comparison to that great Scorsese flick is a stretch in several dimensions.

Bean is a wiseguy called Jason Locke just out from a five year term and while he was away his boss did amazingly well (e.g., mansion, fancy cars, trophy wife). He’s also an extremely jealous man and not quite able to believe that his wife (Kingston, looking even hotter than she did on ER) was faithful all that time.

Our point of view is provided by a young guy named Billy (Charlie Creed-Miles) who is recommended to Locke by prison friend John Dyke (Wilkerson) as a driver, a job Billy does occasionally for the older man as well. He quickly becomes one of the guys, despite some concern about just what it is he’s getting into.

Locke wants a bit of the good life too, more than what he’s likely to come by soon as someone else’s muscle. That’s the beginning of the end. Written and directed by Terry Winsor, many of the twists are unexpected and most of the bad guys get what’s coming but Essex Boys lacks the complexity and scope of Goodfellas. Goals should, I think, be farther than one’s fingers can quite reach but one must accept the results that come.

recommended, just