p e n g u i n d e v i l

Ah, the good life! That’s what Gal and Aitch have found in Spain. Two British gangsters retired to Spanish villas and enjoying nights of drinking, dancing and general merriment with their molls. Could life get any better? Probably not… But could it get worse? Starting right off during the opening credits (the best opening scene ever, by the way) we get a hint the filmmakers may not intend this particular retirement to be as relaxing as it might seem.

Into this situation comes a phone call from back home in jolly old England. It seems that there is a big job on the horizon and someone has decided that good old Gal has to join in. The problem is that good old Gal doesn’t want to come out of retirement. Unfortunately, this call came from good old Don Logan, the scariest psychopath this side of… Well, not this side of anyone. Really just about the scariest psychopath around. And Don has decided, in light of Gal’s hesitation, to come for a visit and make the invitation in person. And so we encounter one of the great film performances of all time. While all of the cast does a great job: Ray Winstone is just great as Gal, Cavan Kendall does a terrific job as his nervous and twitchy old pal Aitch… But Ben Kingsley? Ah, yes… It was this role, coming after his great performance in Death and the Maiden, that convinced me that Ben Kingsley could do no wrong, and here he doesn’t. Don is angry. Don is calm. Don is in charge and Don is a free-of-charge profanity dispenser. You want to be cursed at? Threatened? Smacked? All from someone who really is just trying to set you right? Logan’s your man! If you want to say no to him, he’d just as well chop your head off with an axe while he’s using the loo, burn your house down while he’s on the phone and then go out for lunch. One of those kinds of chaps.

Watching our little group trying to keep themselves together and not completely wilt under the heat of Don Logan is a very stressful and uncomfortable situation… And one of my favorites to watch. The second half of the movie is similarly stressful but in a much different sense. They do not drop the suspense and dread for poor old Gal, as he goes off to London under somewhat unexpected circumstances to participate in this job. Trying to get this job dealt with under the weighty shadow of Don Logan and trying to keep himself together while dealing with a much different, yet equally intimidating thug Teddy (Ian McShane in another great performance), keeps us on the edge of our seats. Sexy Beast is an hour and a half of stress, and it is worth every minute of it.