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The film opens all sunny and idyllic in Spain. Here is Gal (Ray Winstone), a retired con man enjoying a quiet life on the Costa del Sol with his beloved wife (Amanda Redman).
The movie's lengthy opening features Gal soaking up sun by his pool, and little else. Then a very large rock rolls down from the hills above Gal's villa and crashes into his swimming pool.
It's comical, but only if you overlook the foreshadowing possibilities. Sure enough, something bad is going to happen, and the tension builds in Sexy Beast. And builds.
From Gal's criminal past comes Don Logan (Ben Kingsley), a man feared and loathed by all concerned and for good reason. Don has shown up in Spain to talk Gal into one more job, a job Gal has no intention of doing. The movie switches from the sunshine to the shadows in seconds.
No, Gal says to Don, no, no, no. No. He won't do it.
Yes, says Don. Yes you will. Yes, yes, yes.
In the end, Gal has to take part in the heist. It's a bank job, and it's partly underwater, and it's an amazing sequence to watch. Question is, will Gal live long enough to get back to Spain?
Sexy Beast, for all the off-hand violence and brutality, is a love story. Whatever the characters do, it seems, they do out of some sort of passion or love. The performances are so superb that the characters are fully three-dimensional, and it is impossible not to be drawn into their story. As bad guys, Ben Kingsley and Ian McShane are the stuff of nightmares.
Jonathan Glazer, known for his music videos and award winning commercials, makes his feature debut directing Sexy Beast. The film has a frenzied pace. It also has no small amount of visual panache.
Those who saw Sexy Beast during the Toronto film festival last fall will no doubt welcome the chance to see it again. And for anyone else, particularly anyone else who wouldn't be caught dead at, say, Pearl Harbor, this is a rare film and well worth seeing. (More on: Sexy Beast).
(This film is rated R)