November 5, 2008: RocknRolla
Back in the day, I used to go into London on a Saturday, sometimes with an actual agenda, sometimes just to wander around. I suppose I should consider myself fortunate that I didn’t encounter the London which is portrayed by Guy Ritchie on film.
I’m a big fan of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, the movie which in 1997 shot Guy Ritchie to fame, and established him as a master of sharp-witted dialogue among small-time London gangsters and hoods, rising above the massive crop of Pulp Fiction-inspired films about small-time gangsters and hoods which saturated the mid- to late-1990s movie scene. Snatch was a quirkier but still solid follow-up. Things have been a bit off the rails during the Madonna years, and now here’s RocknRolla as a triumphant return to form.
Oh, if only it were that simple.
The problem with RocknRolla isn’t that the dialogue is stupid or silly, because it’s not too far beyond the stylized street-wise talk we’re accustomed to hearing from Ritchie’s small-time thugs. It’s not the set design, because that succeeds exactly as expected. It’s not even the story, exactly, which is convoluted and ridiculous just the way we like it, in a way that comes together with some satisfying twists and some satisfying deaths at the end. No, I think I would have to pin this one on the characters (as written), and the casting, which magnifies how unbelievable the characters are.
Toby Kebbell does a great job as the titular “RocknRolla”, a presumed-dead cult favourite rock star who ends up in possession of a stolen painting. Some of the other supporting roles are well-written and well-played as well. But the lead triumvirate of Tom Wilkinson as the local big-time thug, Mark Strong as his muscle, and Thandie Newton as a shady accountant looking for some thrills, are totally unbelievable in their roles, both because the characters don’t make sense and because the acting is wooden and uninspired.
Throw in the fact that everyone seemed to be providing an exaggeration of every classic Guy Ritchie affectation, and we end up with a movie which is a wannabe slick, street-smart thrill ride, which ends up instead being a cartoonish farce.
Don’t bother. Watch Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels again instead.
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