FACE (65)

Directed by: Antonia Bird

Starring: Robert Carlyle, Ray Winstone, Philip Davis, Steven Waddington

The Pitch: A gang of crooks find things going horribly wrong after a big heist.

Theo Sez: A no-frills crime movie that's also a lament for 90s Britain, a place of lost ideals where greed has replaced community : the film cleverly connects (left-wing) political activism with the traditional code of loyalty among crooks - old-fashioned emblems of working-class solidarity, dying out now - but, not so cleverly, thumps its message into the ground with heavy-handed speeches ("There's no public service anymore, there's no public servants - all there is is money, and the people who have it") and such details as a wall with "Vote Apathy" graffitied on it. As in PRIEST, this director seems to have worked out the ideological line first then built a film to fit - though at least the tone here is rueful rather than hectoring, pining for a time (as per the title) when the world wasn't quite so faceless ; more importantly, the socio-politics aren't allowed to overwhelm, slotting neatly into what's actually a film of many moods. LONG GOOD FRIDAY 'villainy' - hard but human, grumbling about "kids today" even while checking out the guns for a new 'job' - blends with undercurrents of black comedy and a goofy tenderness, notably in Waddington's turn as a childlike, sci-fi-reading sidekick ; even Davis's inevitable psycho gets a quiet moment, musing beguilingly about the sour-milk smell of babies. That it has something to say - albeit clumsily - can only be a bonus.