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Reviews
The Business (2005)
Not a gangster film, but a film film
Basically, i thoroughly disagree with the foremost comment about this movie. It opens appallingly - incredibly badly shot and clumsily dreamlike - and with no explanation of early events - why Frankie's mother is being beaten, who this mysterious benefactor who sends him to Spain is - the opening of the movie may as well be disregarded as the most awful premise imaginable. Indeed the writer himself appears to forget this premise later in the movie - when Frankie is scared out of Charlie's operation and is intending to return to England, plane ticket in hand and has a convenient change of heart but ACTUALLY he CANT go back to england because he's WANTED FOR MURDER back there. Massive plot-hole, clearly exposing the weakness of the main plot premise. Having said all this though, the actual body of the film is fantastic - wooden acting early on (alright Frankie get in the motor alright john we're having a party later alright Charlie alright then let's go alright it's john's wife oi oi etc) is replaced by some daring performances once the grittier plot content is revealed and a more telling and human story than the gangster premise allows for. Serious laughs come not from the dodgy one-liners (which personally felt poorly delivered - in fact, all of Frankie's narration should be done away with for a director's cut) but from elaborate comic situations well-written (the scene in the Mayor's office with Sonny had me in serious stitches, as did Charlie's "comeback" party.) The comic element coupled with extremely dramatic and knowingly human and realist content are the strengths of this movie, rather than its terrible opening and series of very poor narrative sequences and faux-south east London one-liners.