| Plot: After hearing his former boss is getting out of jail, an elderly man going by the alias "Gangster 55" recalls his rise to the top during the gangster scene in 1968 England. Review I didn't really think about reviewing this movie until a thought crossed my mind. At the time I picked this up, it was at a video store I had never been to filled with nothing but movies that were the same old Hollywood bullshit or something I'd already seen. I look for new, bizarre, and interesting films I've never seen before. Then this movie catches my eye, and as I sit here now I think, "What about all the other people in video stores looking for something different?" It would be a disservice to those people if I didn't get the word out on this movie. For starters, don't be fooled by its Pulp Fiction-esque boxart or shrug it off as a direct-to-video British gangster movie. This is a piece of mobster mayhem that doesn't run with the pack of the usual "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels rip-off, forgettable, ultra-violent" British gangster movies, this one is original. In a cinematic first, we have two actors playing a half of a character. Malcom McDowell plays a successful, elderly Gangster 55 for a few minutes in the movies and provides narration while Paul Bettany plays a young Gangster 55 for the bulk of the movie. Alone, each performance is good, but add together McDowell's narration and Paul Bettany's chilling performance (he has only a few lines in the entire movie) and you have one unforgettable character with Gangster 55. When I say Paul Bettany's performance is chilling, I mean it. The man's intense with his psychotic looks; the man clearly knows how to milk all those eyeball shots for all their worth ("Look at my fucking eyes!"). His eyes will send shivers down your spine. Not only that, but we get plenty of other scenes to witness Paul Bettany's acting abilities as he portrays this psycho. One memorable sequence is when Gangster 55 is looking to murder his boss' rival. He neatly folds all his clothes, turns on some music, and goes to work on the guy with a machete, hatchet, and other goodies. McDowell's narration gives us huge insight into the character's thoughts and his colorful commentary rounds out Gangster 55's character. However, perhaps it's the actual lack of personality in Gangster 55 that makes him interesting. He's an ambitious gangster that enjoys killing and maiming, but he doesn't actually have a real personality. He is then fixated on his boss, Freddie Mays (David Thewlis) and wants to be him in every way. He wants his success, he wants his personality, and he even wants his girlfriend. Thewlis plays Mays with a certain casual charm, but I wasn't particularly interested in him. Paul Bettany was the movie here. In Gangster 55's rise to the top, he has given up everything that makes him human and has given up any real happiness he could've achieved in his life. The "you lose everything in the rise to the top" theme is played for all it's worth at the finale of the movie. Personally, I just felt it didn't work out in the movie. Before the finale, it was a dark character study of a psychotic (yet likeable) gangster, now it played like some kind of "moral of the day" scene. The theme is especially hit home hard when we see McDowell giving us a loud tirade saying "I'm fucking number one!", which is a clear homage to the line "King of the world, ma!" Which is to say there was nothing actually wrong with the ending, but I felt it was a tired way to end a movie, especially after witnessing a very unique gangster flick. In the end I liked Gangster No. 1, but didn't necessarily love it. It had a distinct atmosphere which set it apart from other mob movies, a flat-out scary performance by Paul Bettany, and a solid (but tired) theme to it. So to those looking for something that isn't the "same old, same old" gangster movie in their local video store, I suggest you take a gander at Gangster No. 1. You won't regret it. |
| Rating: *** |
| Review by Jim |
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