U.S. DVD Release
If you came home one day only to be confronted with the news that your wife, or husband, was leaving you I imagine you would be mildly pissed off. Add to this the fact that they had been seeing someone else, I’d guess you would be really pissed off. Well, this is the situation Colin Diamond (Ray Winstone) is faced with and how he deals with it in this class movie.
Hang on though, before you think that it is going to be about him sitting around whining just hold your horses for a second. Sure, he is not a happy bunny and he does hit the bottle with a vengeance, however there is far more to it than that. For a start Colin and his friends decide to find the fella that his estranged wife was messing about with and kidnap him. It is then down to Colin to decide what to do with him as he ponders his life.
What follows is a story that flashes backward and forward unraveling the full story which, at times is violent and coarse, is thoroughly riveting. On an initial viewing you may be forgiven for thinking that not all that much happens and in terms of “action” not all that much does. Instead this is a movie that focuses on the characters that pull the story together which is ripe with some incredibly ripe language delivered in a thick English accent. I watched this with my lady and she had no idea what was being said half the time, which led me to interpret some of what was said. I was in stitches most of the time though as I found the dialogue between the characters to be hilarious, even when the conversations took a turn for the darker side.
Great dialogue aside, this movie probably would not have worked as well as it did had it not been for the stellar cast that was assembled. Winstone gives his usual powerhouse performance, but this was supported admirably by Tom Wilkinson, Ian Mcshane and Stephen Dillane as his friends. However, all of these were overshadowed by John Hurt, as Old Man Peanut, who gives an absolutely wonderful performance. Joanne Whalley also stars as Winstone’s wife and is probably the only weak point in the movie. There is nothing terribly wrong with her she just seemed overshadowed and under utilized when put up against the rest of the cast.
Overall though 44 Inch Chest was an absolutely gripping piece of drama that I cannot wait to revisit. Dark, character driven and unforgiving, this is a perfect companion movie to 2000′s Sexy Beast, which was also written by the same writing team of Louis Mellis and David Scinto and also starred Winstone and McShane.
If you want non-stop action go elsewhere, if you want a damned good character piece I suggest you grab a copy of this movie.
It was definitely all about the dialogue!
Haven’t seen it yet but it sounds cool.