Cast: Clive Owen, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Charlotte Rampling, Malcolm McDowell, Noel Clarke
Director: Mike Hodges
Producer: Mike Kaplan
Screenplay: Trevor Preston
Cinematography: Michael Garfath
Music: Simon Fisher-Turner
U.S. Distributor: Paramount Classics
At least in terms of atmosphere, one of the darkest films of the summer is Mike Hodges' I'll Sleep When I'm Dead. Hodges, best known for 1971's Get Carter, and whose career received a mini-revival a couple of years ago with Croupier, saturates this movie with darkness and shadow. It's a slow-moving, moody revenge thriller. Unlike high-energy productions like Point Blank or Death Wish, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead moves at its own pace, making the characters and their moral dilemmas - not blood and violence - the film's foundation.
The film opens by introducing us to Davey (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), a well-liked, small-time drug dealer who happens to be the younger brother of Will (Clive Owen), one of the coldest, meanest enforcers ever to walk the streets of London. Three years ago, Will had a crisis of conscience, and, after giving up his profession and fleeing to the countryside, he hasn't once visited the city. One night, as Davey is returning home from a party, he is set upon and brutally raped. Humiliated beyond his ego's capacity to endure it, he staggers into his apartment, fills the bathtub with water, and slits his own throat. The inquest determines that the cause of death is suicide, but Will, returning to London for the funeral, believes otherwise. He sees Davey's death as murder, with the killer being the man who committed the rape. He is obsessed with finding this person, and meting out his own brand of justice. Meanwhile, local gang leaders are nervous about Will's re-appearance, fearing that if he is back in London permanently, he will shift the current balance of power.
"Slow burn" is an apt descriptor for this movie. Hodges depicts London as it is rarely seen in movies and never on postcards - a dark, desolate place whose benighted streets and back-alleys are fraught with danger. The London bureau of tourism will not be using I'll Sleep When I'm Dead as a tool to boost vacation travel. Hodges could have made this movie an easier sell if he had sped up the pace and injected a little more action, but he forces the movie to proceed methodically, allowing us to absorb not only the nuances of the characters, but everything about the setting.
Lead actor Clive Owen (who also starred in Croupier and has been mentioned as a possible successor to Pierce Brosnan as James Bond - a job he has stated he doesn't want, by the way) doesn't have a lot of dialogue, but he doesn't need it. He acts with his eyes, and the camera captures a fierce intensity in them that is rarely seen. In addition to Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Davey, Owen is supported by Charlotte Rampling as an ex-girlfriend and Malcolm McDowell as a loving father and husband with a dark secret.
In order to appreciate I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, you have to be willing to absorb unhurried film noir, and to accept that the film's version of "closure" is a little frustrating. Hodges' approach to this material is intentionally the opposite of the one used by Michael Bay and the other MTV-influenced directors. This is a movie that will put ADD sufferers to sleep, while simultaneously rewarding those who have the patience to see it through. I'm in the latter camp; consequently, I found this to be a compelling motion picture.
© 2004 James Berardinelli