The decision that Daniel Craig (“Verblendeung”) should become the new James Bond was not greeted with joy by all fans of the long-running agent series. With ‘Casino Royale’ the athletic Brit with steel blue eyes managed to silence all doubters. Today, Craig is one of the most popular 007 actors ever – even competing with Sean Connery (“Goldfinger”), the franchise’s true favorite.
The fact that Daniel Craig was finally able to slip into the prestigious role of the iconic double-zero agent was in no small part due to his performance in ‘Layer Cake’. Like ‘Casino Royale’ director Martin Campbell once explainedhe watched Matthew Vaughn’s gangster thriller (“Argylle”) and then stopped worrying that Craig was absolutely the right choice. If you haven’t seen “Layer Cake” yet, you can currently watch it on Netflix.
That’s what “Layer Cake” is all about
An unnamed cocaine dealer (Daniel Craig) has built his life around a few basic principles. This also includes that all transactions take place inconspicuously and that contact with end users is absolutely prohibited. After having saved a large part of the money as a reserve during his work, he thinks about a possible exit from the drug trade. But his boss Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham) thwarts his plans.
For Jimmy, he shouldn’t just look for the lost daughter of his old friend Edward Tempel (Michael Gambon) in the London junkie environment that he hates so much. He would also make a deal for a million ectasy pills with the Duke (Jamie Foreman). Trouble will not be long in coming, as the Nameless One will soon no longer have the opportunity to stick to his principles…
A must for Guy Ritchie fans
Watching “Layer Cake,” it quickly becomes clear which director Matthew Vaughn most clearly modeled after his critically acclaimed debut: Guy Ritchie (“Operation Fortune”). And that is no coincidence, because the two filmmakers are not only good friends, they also founded the production company Ska Films together in 1997 and with ‘Jack, Queen, King, GrAs’ and ‘Snatch – Pigs and Diamonds’ they had around the turn of the millennium had a significant impact on cinema.
“Layer Cake” works according to the same patterns as the classic Guy Ritchie works: Polished dialogue sequences, quirky supporting characters, a tangled plot, and a protagonist surrounded by the aura of mysterious coolness are what matters most. Nowadays, ‘Layer Cake’ is very much a product of its time, thanks to its fast pace, the not-too-constructed twists and a brilliant Daniel Craig, who really gives something of a test drive for his later James Bond engagement, but also after 20 More Years in a good mood.