Face (I) (1997)

Ray is an aging ex-socialist who has become a bankrobber after seeing the demise of socialism in 1980s Britain. Teaming up with a gang of other has-beenish crims, he commits one bank job ... See full summary »

Director:

Antonia Bird

Writer:

Ronan Bennett (screenplay)

Stars:

Robert Carlyle, Ray Winstone, Steve Sweeney

4 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robert Carlyle	...	Ray
Ray Winstone	...	Dave
Steve Sweeney	...	Weasel
Gerry Conlon	...	Vince
Leon Black	...	Robbie
David Boateng	...	Lionel
Lena Headey	...	Connie
Eddie Nestor	...	Pearse
Steven Waddington	...	Stevie
Christine Tremarco	...	Sarah
Andrew Tiernan	...	Chris
Sue Johnston	...	Alice
Damon Albarn	...	Jason
Philip Davis	...	Julian
Hazel Douglas	...	Linda

Storyline

Ray is an aging ex-socialist who has become a bankrobber after seeing the demise of socialism in 1980s Britain. Teaming up with a gang of other has-beenish crims, he commits one bank job too many. The gang dissolves in a murderous flurry of recriminations.

---

Plot Keywords:

gang | police station | robbery | critique of capitalism | treason | 

---

Taglines:

The blag to kill for. Only one of them meant it for real.

---

Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence and language

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 September 1997 (UK)

Also Known As:

Caras conocidas

Filming Locations:

Bancroft Road, Mile End, London, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

BBC Films, British Screen Productions, Daigoro Face Productions Ltd.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

References Hidden Agenda (1990)

User Reviews

I Couldn't Help It.

Face is among the subgenre of movies that can still blindside me with severe mediocrity. There are intermittent times when I simply cannot resist a cheeky gangster flick, and Face is one of the candygrams that blows up in your face. There's nothing inherently wrong with the story except that it has been used more times than a hooker's hanky, the basic premise anyway.

The film begins with Robert Carlyle and Ray Winstone, two of England's great screen badasses, breaking into a drug dealer's apartment, posing as police officers in order to raid his cash and his stash. The next scene begins the unfolding of the mainline of the plot, a bank robbery. And they have their logistics man, Robert Carlyle's old friend from prison, et cetera. Then the third event in the film is the inevitable betrayal within the heist crew. And of course there's Carlyle's nagging, guilt-laying girlfriend. I've always wondered what else will happen in a crime film whenever the story's pivotal heist occurs in the first twenty minutes other than betrayals and nagging token female characters. These filmmakers don't seem to have shared my curiosity.

Aside from a small portion of time given to Carlyle's backstory as a war protester, Face is just another recycled crime flick for teenagers telling the age-old tale of a group of violent criminals and what happens to them after they steal a lot of money. It even employs another thriller gimmick: It's set over the course of 48 hours in and around the city, in this case London. What director Antonia Bird, who did later direct a decent Robert Carlyle movie called Ravenous, tries to do is gloss the film with grunge, badassery and style as a substitute for expanding on what she pulled off the assembly line, one of the results of this choice being a soundtrack that is unusually bad for an English gangster film.

I'm sure I'm not being fair enough to this movie. There are several assembly line movies that are entertaining enough, but frankly I don't feel that requires an explanation that differentiates between this and them. To me, if you're making an insincere movie, the audience has the right to be subjective. Whether one considers it a good movie or not is now pure luck. With Face, I was bored and cynical. If it were on TV on a lazy day or when I need to kill a little time, I might stay for a few minutes of the shootout in the street (in which you can briefly hear an unmistakable soundbite of Tim Roth's wailing early in Reservoir Dogs), or for one good if very brief scene, where Carlyle is comforted by Winstone by hugging him when he's crying.