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Gangster No. 1
(Reviewed June 29, 2002, by James Dawson)
-
In this Brit gangster pic that spans 25-or-so years, Malcolm McDowell doesn't just chew the scenery, he wolfs it down and then belches in your face with a "want to make something of it" sneer. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
In sequences at the film's beginning and end, McDowell plays the older version of a psycho bully drafted into a life o' London crime during the swingin' seventies. His younger self--never identified by name, and very well played by Paul Bettany--simultaneously admires and resents gang boss Freddie Mays (David Thewlis). Although there are a couple of places where the pic veers dangerously close to self-parodying "Deuces Wild" phony-tough-guy territory, it also includes one of the most brutal, stylishly shot murder sequences ever put on celluloid.
Bettany is so good as the young Gangster that any memory of him as Chaucer in last year's abominable "A Knight's Tale" will be stomped and sliced right out of your head. It's not completely convincing that Bettany's tight-lipped, smoldering bastard full of icy contempt would mature into the gregariously vulgar McDowell, but hey, time does funny things to some people.
While "Gangster No. 1" is more character-study than story, and has a frustratingly unsatisfying ending, it never ceases to be interesting--which is more than can be said for 99 percent of what gets slapped onto screens these days. Not exactly the feel-good movie of the year, but you'll remember the champagne-glass-beside-the-urinal scene forever.
Back Row Grade: B-
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