Received wisdom on Layer Cake was the shock that Matthew Vaughn (erstwhile Guy Ritchie producer) turned out to be a better director than Ritchie himself. LAZY LAZY LAZY! Yes, Layer Cake is a striking effort, but considering where Vaughn is in his career and who he has been able to call up to shoot and collaborate with it might not be a surprise that it is well made. Where are the flashes of directorial individuality which, for better or worse, ran through Ritchie’s debut like a dog in Walthamstow Stadium?
So to the Ordinary World section, the moment where the film leaps to life. I am not sure I like the section, but this is possibly personal. Ordinary World is one of my favourite songs, the pain in Simon Le Bon’s voice as he sings about not being a pop star anymore (my reading) gets me every time, so listening to it and suddenly visualising the savage beating from Layer Cake was a bit upsetting. Yet looking back, the songs choreography, for all its slick cruelness, is one of those perfect pairing of music and action. It may be flash tat, but that is where Vaughn showed he could do it.