neumu [ cinematronic ]




	I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
	Mike Hodges Clive Owen, Charlotte Rampling, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Malcolm McDowell, Jamie Foreman, Ken Stott, Sylvia Syms, Alexander Morton 2003		Teamed again after doing the tidy, taut 1998 drama/character sketch/caper film "Croupier," no-muss director Mike Hodges and no-fuss leading man Clive Owen make the dolorous British neo-noir "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" breathe — a little. Will Graham (Owen) is a gangster who disappeared from the London underworld. He lives out of a van in a rural area and works at whatever job he can get, until he learns that his brother Davey (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), a party animal and small-time drug dealer, has died. Seeking answers, Will returns to the city, looks up his former lover Helen (Charlotte Rampling) and begins to uncover the truth about Davey's death. "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" is not as incisive as "Croupier," and it's sketchy when it comes to motivations and certain plot turns. But Hodges knows how to sustain moods — in this case, despair and resignation. Owen brings stature to brooding loner Will, an anti-hero and the Western equivalent to the ronin, or masterless samurai, visiting his own brand of justice upon those violating a code of honor. The loyalties of mobsters in the rival London factions can be vague. Some of them are on Will's side; some aren't; some don't seem to care. The actors playing them are properly thuggish. If only "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" was less sluggish. With the marvelous Malcolm McDowell as one particularly unsavory character.


	Saturday, April 20, 2024





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