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 Dortmunder & Co. With Brit Accents?
Snatch
Dennis Farina, Brad Pitt, Vinnie Jones
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The general haplessness and incompetence of the
various criminal elements and their grandiose schemes and their confounding
in this film put me strongly in mind of Donald Westlake's novels of thief
Dortmunder and his buddies
(Bank Shot,
Don't Ask). Not the movies made from them, which have
never quite displayed this level of precision and deftness, but the books
themselves.
This is the type of film that can look so easy to just sort of toss off,
but is actually quite difficult as one works to get the different story elements
to work out at the right times to mesh to convey the story.
Vinnie Jones, as has been mentioned quite a bit, is a treasure; his
"replica/Desert Eagle" scene, a sort of "elder statesman of mayhem" monolog,
is one of the better menace bits i've seen in a while, as well as a helpful
lecture on the basic mechanics of their chosen profession to a couple of
junior thugs.
Dennis Farina and Brad Pitt, presumably chosen to give Snatch a bit
more USAn appeal than Lock Stock etc's all UKan cast, fit in nicely
with the home-grown thugs; and, of course, Pitt's total incomprehensibility
to everyone (Thank the DVD Deities for the special "Pikey" subtitles) is
used to the fullest effect.
The mayhem herein is a bit less random and coincidental than was the case
in Lock Stock etc., in that almost everyone has a Plan revolving either
around illegal boxing matches or the 86-carat diamond or both. Some of them
are quite Clever Plans. The various story lines are a bit better explicated
and easier to follow, as well.
Unfortunately for these fellows, it is a military truism that even the best
battle plan seldom survives first contact with the enemy.
Impressively, unlike The Big Sleep, which got so complicated that
even the author of the original book was unable to figure out who killed
the chauffeur, all is resolved by the end of the film, and we know what happened
to whom.
OTOH, the end of the film also indicates a continuation of the screwball
action... |
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