Gal (Ray Winstone) is a retired crook now residing in Spain with his wife Deedee (Amanda Redman). He likes to spend his time shooting rabbits and relaxing in the blazing sun at the side of his pool, that is until a huge boulder comes crashing down a hill and lands in it. Gal's idyllic life is interrupted when a bloke from his criminal past phones his friend and tells him he will be soon paying Gal a visit. The bloke in question is Don Logan (played menacingly by Ben Kingsley). Don is a frightening psychopathic figure. In one scene a man asks Don to put his cigarette out and Don replies, "I'll cut your hands off and stub it out on your eyeball". We first see Don walking through an airport (a scene not unlike when we first see Harold Shand in The Long Good Friday). On Don's arrival at Gal's villa, not many words are spoken. Don asks Gal to come to London to do a bank job with his firm. Gal declines, but Don won't take no for an answer. Eventually, Gal must go and do the job. There are some dream sequences where Gal is sat at a dinner table in the desert and Don appears in the shape of a human rabbit, shooting a machine gun at him. The film has a sort of romantic theme with Gal and his wife, and the theme of this enormous ogre that must be overcome. Winstone is as solid as ever playing a cockney crook, but it's Kingsley who (not surprisingly) stands out with his manic turn. It's stylishly shot and a film well worth seeing, and it doesn't outstay its welcome with its running time of just 84 minutes.
Review of Sexy Beast
