‘Layer Cake’ Review: Matthew Vaughn’s First Film Might Be His Best
I’ve long had a love-hate relationship with the works of Matthew Vaughn. He has always seemed like a poor man’s Guy Ritchie (which makes some sense considering he produced Ritchie’s earliest films), but while he lacks the purity of Ritchie’s style, he makes up for it by avoiding most of Ritchie’s worst habits. That said, I’ve found a lot of his movies to be rather obnoxious, like Kingsman, and even some of his movies the are actually pretty good, like Kick-Ass, still manage to get on my nerves at times. They always seem to be trying too hard to be cool, stylish, witty, or edgy. The major exception being X-Men: First Class, which is great because it strays so far from what Vaughn usually does. All that said, I have been wanting for a while to see his 2004 directorial debut, Layer Cake, which has always seemed intriguing for reasons I don’t fully understand. This past week I finally got the chance, and suffice it to say, Layer Cake is pretty damn good.
Layer Cake is based on a crime novel of the same name and follows an unnamed criminal notes as XXXX (Daniel Craig). Having made a tidy sum in the drug trade, XXXX plans to retire before he gets drawn into a web of various criminal operations gone wrong, all of which throw his life into chaos. The title is a reference to the hierarchy of the criminal world, which has layers upon layers of complexity and there is always someone bigger than you waiting to swoop in and the what’s yours. It also helps frame the plot which is a dense layer cake of its own, consisting of many disparate narrative threads that the film must juggle and then tie together. Part of what I really liked about Layer Cake is how it manages to handle the busy nature of its story. There is so much going on at all times, the film seems at constant risk of falling apart under its own weight, but the script from J.J. Connolly, the direction, and the editing all work wonderfully hand-in-hand to carry the audience through and make sure nothing gets lost. The only real issue is the very end, which in spite of its cleverness, feels random and off-putting.
Daniel Craig delivers a fantastic performance in the lead role, and one that helped him secure the part of James Bond not long after. The cast is rounded out by many great character actors like George Harris, Michael Gambon, Colm Meaney, and Dexter Fletcher as well as future stars in the making like Tom Hardy, Sienna Miller, Ben Winshaw, and Sally Hawkins.
As for the direction, it is definitely a Matthew Vaughn film. While it is stylish and it certainly makes a bold statement, Layer Cake is somewhat understated compared to Vaughn’s most recent work. It manages to be cool without trying too hard to be. It also manages to balance the Guy Ritchie-esque combination of humor and tough guy stuff very well by not trying to be funny and rather trying to be menacing.
If you are like me or anyone I know, Matthew Vaughn is likely to be a divisive filmmaker to bring up. His work is very much his own, but it is often very irritating. But in 2004, you wouldn’t be crazy to think he had a promising career ahead of him with such a strong debut. Layer Cake is the movie every Matthew Vaughn project wants to be, and more.
