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14/9/2008
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RocknRolla (2008)
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Poor Guy Ritchie. When Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch were released in 1998 and 2000 respectively, the unassuming writer-director was touted as the next big thing in British film-making, a visionary talent with a fresh eye for visuals and a smart take on the Brit gangster flick. Then he made Swept Away and Revolver, and is now more famous for being married to Madonna. Good news, then, that RocknRolla marks a striking return to form, even if Ritchie is sticking stubbornly to the genre he’s most comfortable with.
RocknRolla contains Ritchie’s usual mix of chancers, gangsters and wide-boys, and proves that the director is still fond of quirky nicknames (One Two, Mumbles, Tank and Cookie deserve honourable mention). The plot involves a shady property deal with a Russian billionaire, a precious painting, a rock star named Johnny Quid, and a botched armed robbery, but don’t worry too much about keeping track of what’s going on. RocknRolla is really about how the old school codes of conduct are losing their relevance in an age where dodgy dealings are carried out beneath a mask of corporate sophistication. It’s also a look at the people on various rungs of the criminal ladder, like top dog Lenny Cole and his right-hand-man Archie, The Wild Bunch – a group of low-level crooks made up of One Two, Mumbles and Handsome Bob – and the assorted characters that get mixed up in their not-quite-above-board dealings.
RocknRolla is visually very impressive; a foot chase between One Two and a Russian henchman looks particularly cool, and the whole film feels like it’s been shot with care and an eye for originality. The acting is uniformly good, even though some of the actors have to fight against lazy characterisation and weak dialogue. There are too many characters, in fact, which means that some promising ones like Tom Hardy’s Handsome Bob don’t get enough screen time, while superfluous or boring characters like the Councillor and Stella pop up more often than they should (if Ritchie wants to put Thandie Newton onscreen so much he should at least give her something to work with…like an actual character).
Plot-wise, who’s stealing what from who and why soon gets forgotten amidst the violence and comedy (there’s a good deal of both in RocknRolla, often at the same time), and the sub-plot involving Toby Kebbell’s cocky rock star Johnny Quid feels a bit like it’s from a different film entirely. If you dislike gangster movies or roguish Cockney stereotypes then don’t even bother with this. However, if you take RocknRolla for what it is – a slice of London crime with the nastier bits glossed over – and can ignore the film’s shortcomings, this is an entertaining, memorable and often very funny movie, and proof that Guy Ritchie is still capable of great things.
Review by Catherine Leopold
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