Posts tagged 44 inch chest

I saw this back in October at the London Film Festival and really enjoyed it, it was definitely one of my highlights of the festival. The dialogue in the film is some of the wittiest and funniest I’ve seen in along time, if your a bit of a fairy and you don’t like swearing this film is not for you though. The story keeps you engaged and was definitely not what I was expecting, it could of gone in so many directions

44 Inch Chest is from the writers of Brit Flick classic Sexy Beast (no little speedos in this though), and reunites Ray Winstone and Ian McShane, also adding John Hurt, who might I add is brilliant, Tom Wilkinson, Stephen Dillane and Joanne Whalley.

This debut feature by Malcolm Venville from a script by Sexy Beast writers Louis Mellis and David Scinto is a powerful drama of a wronged husband trying to regain his self-respect. Colin (Ray Winstone) is devastated when his wife announces she’s leaving him for a younger man, and when we first meet him he is sprawled drunkenly amidst the wreckage of their final argument, as Nilsson’s ‘Without You’ loops in the background. This virtuoso opening really sets the tone for what follows, aggressive and maudlin by turns. Colin’s motley crew of old friends (John Hurt, Ian McShane, Tom Wilkinson, Stephen Dillane) rally to his aid, though their plot to kidnap the lover and push Colin into taking revenge is misguided in conception and inept in execution. A provocative and darkly funny study of masculinity at its most troubling, 44 Inch Chest gives the actors full rein to explore the male ego pushed to its limits, and this wonderful ensemble certainly rise to the task.

44 Inch Chest is in UK cinemas 22nd January.