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Review

Though Louis Mellis and David Scinto - the same writers behind 2000's equally small-scale gangster comedy/drama Sexy Beast - never get too specific about what kind of criminal shenanigans earn their characters a living, there is never any doubt that the men in 44 Inch Chest are all bonded like family and capable of murder.

Ray Winstone plays Colin Diamond, a devastated British gangster who faces a serious emotional breakdown after his wife Liz (Joanne Whalley) tries to leave him for a much younger man, known only as Loverboy (Melvil Poupaud). What is a husband to do after he's been made to feel deep humiliation by the woman he loves? Slap her around for information, find her new lover, kidnap him, lock him in a chest somewhere private and teach him that there are consequences to nailing another man's wife (of course). In seeking revenge, Colin solicits the help of his closest comrades.

Archie (Tom Wilkinson); a compassionate 50-something who still lives with his mother, Mal (Stephen Dillane); a goodlooking revenge-seeker who may be just as capable of adultury as Colin's wife, Peanut (John Hurt); an angry, old crumudgeon and Meredith (Ian McShane); an openly gay gambler, act as a Greek chorus, empathizing with their cuckolded friend's heartache and helping to guide his every move. The dialog is fast, funny, furious and filthy as these five troublemakers try to decide how "real men" are expected to act in such vengeful situations. Do they torture and kill Loverboy or accept dishonor and learn to let bygones be bygones?

Mellis and Scinto effectively added subtle, ironic undertones of homoeroticism to their cult crime classic Sexy Beast. They step it up a notch in this film with Ian McShane's well-crafted character and our hats are off to them. McShane is the embodiment of calm, cool and collected as a dashing, charismatic wiseguy in his prime - unafraid to be blunt about his sexuality, and turn-ons, in the company of equally hardened, heterosexual criminals. When Hurt's reasonably tolorant yet homophobic Old Man Peanut fires off insults like "poof" in McShane's direction, he responds with unbridled honesty and pride. The character adds another intelligent layer to this witty, consistently engaging attempt at breaking down old-school machismo stereotypes and exemplifying what love and marriage are really all about.

 -- Robert O'Neill