Sexy Beast is a fairly old movie, having released in 2000 and stars Ben Kingsley, Ray Winstone, Ian McShane, Amanda Redman, Julianne White and others.
The movie opens with Gal (Winstone) having a sunbath in his Spanish villa when a boulder rolls down the hill and misses him by inches, ending up in the pool. It was a way to symbolically show the hurricane in the form of Don Logan (Kingsley) headed his way.
Before relating Logan’s appearance, a background on Gal would be needed. Gal is a safecracker who’s retired with his ex-porn star wife Deedee(Redman) to Spain. Along with his friend Aitch (Cavan Kendall) and Aitch’s wife, Jackie (White) they lead an idyllic life. Logan who’s a London gangster (played by an incredibly fit looking Kingsley) seeks Gal’s help to crack an ’’uncrackable’’ safe in London at the behest of Teddy Bass (McShane).
The bank that Teddy Bass wants to loot is managed by a guy he meets at an orgy. Teddy has sex with him to gain his trust and checks out the bank’s security measures, only depositing a pack of Dunhill in the deposit box. He plans to get around the bank’s security by tunneling under a Turkish bathhouse, which leads directly to the bank’s safe.
Logan bullies Gal into accepting the job much against Gal’s and Deedee’s wishes. The way Logan convinces Gal into taking the job is humorous and sadistic. Logan walks into their almost perfect lives like a tsunami and threatens to rip apart their marriage.
Kingsley is brilliant in his role as an abusive gangster who’s used to having his own way and threatens to mow down anybody who resists his will. It comes as a complete surprise to see a man who has played Gandhi like he was born for the role, transform into such a villainous character. The hallmark of a great actor. Winstone as the wimpy, hedonistic Gal is great and McShane plays the crime-lord to perfection.
The story also relates Logan’s soft-side and his love for Jackie, but its eclipsed by his bitterness about the ’’nice’’ life that Gal and his friends lead. Deedee’s hate and Jackie’s distaste for Logan, Gal’s indifference are more obvious, but the subliminal plot which is not readily apparent at first glance, provides a good study in human psychology. It will take atleast a second viewing to fully understand the movie and what its trying to convey.
The film was primarily made for British audiences, because the prolific swear words, the slang, is more common to the language of working-class England.
Jonathan Glazer directs this movie and he has given audiences an almost unforgettable comedy, which has a dark side to it as terrifying as the movie is humorous.