Ryan McNeil
In music, when an artist is in a funk, sometimes it’s best to go back to square one. Johnny Cash, for instance, was withering on the far fringes of the music scene during the eighties and early nineties until he started recording darker and earthier music that reminded people of what made him famous in the first place. U2 had a similar situation. Ditto Bruce Springsteen and Prince. Over the years, many a rocknrolla has had great success reminding the masses of why they rocked in the first place.
Now, at the movies, it’s Guy Ritchies turn to show us what sort of rocknrolla he once was.
ROCKNROLLA revolves around three main gangs of thieves. We start with some hooligans known as The Wild Bunch. They are spearheaded by and Mumbles and One-Two (Idris Elba & Gerard Butler). They go to an rich “old school” crook named Lenny Cole (Tom Wilkinson) with a real estate proposition. When the deal falls through, they find themselves owing him two million euros (which, of course, they don’t have). In the meantime, Lenny is working on a deal with Uri The Russian (Karel Roden). To finance his deal, he’ll need to pay Lenny seven million euros. With me so far?
To get his seven million, Uri contacts his very talented, and smokin’ hot accountant Stella (Thandie Newton). As it happens, Stella is also rather close with One-Two; so much so that she tips him off to the car that will be transporting the money for he and his fellow thugs to rob it. Interestingly enough, they use their new fortune to pay back Lenny. However, the robbery has a ripple effect, since now Lenny still hasn’t been paid by Uri, and Uri thinks Lenny organized the heist himself to take even more money.
In the background of all of this, is Johnny Quid (Toby Kebbell). Toby is Lenny’s son, and the rock and roll protege of two American producers (Played most entertainingly by Ludacris and Jeremy Piven). Johnny is allegedly dead – for the third time in a year. But his untimely demise hasn’t stopped him from getting his hands on an item that further strains the delicate business partnership of Uri and Lenny.
The movie is an amazing amount of fun. Not for the merry-go-round of dirty deals that seems comically never-ending, but for the clowns that keep it going. It feels like while Guy Ritchie felt the need to go back to what he does best, he also wanted to start over with a new brand of crooks. Gerard Butler seems to have the most fun with it, playing a lout with the perfect mix of muscle and charm. The guy even gets a pair of dance scenes! One truly fun and sexy number with Newton, and the other…well, let’s just leave that as a surprise.
Wilkinson also has a great deal of fun playing Lenny as an iron-tough crime boss. When sorting out out to deal with a new generation of criminals, he puts it quite bluntly:
“There’s no school like the old school, and I’m the fuckin’ headmaster”
For those who are more familiar with Wilkinson from his sheepish roles like THE FULL MONTY and ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, this side of him will come as a surprise. But if you enjoyed his work as Carmine Falcone in BATMAN BEGINS, you’re in for a treat because he gets to flex those badass muscles with a bit more might this time around.
Guy Ritchie broke into Hollywood with a bang back in 1998 with his maverick brit-heist film LOCK, STOCK, AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS. However in recent years, he’s been running in circles making horrible spousal-starring vehicles (SWEPT AWAY), and shoot-em-ups too ambitious for their own good (the direct-to-DVD REVOLVER).
So eight years removed from his last success, Ritchie went back to the drawing board. And by returning to what he does best, he’s managed to come up with ROCKNROLLA: his best film in ages…and one of the best heist movies of the year.