The Business (2005)

Set in the Thatcher era with the cool sounds of the 80's, THE BUSINESS is an action packed gangster flick set in Spain's sun drenched Costa Del crime. Frankie (Danny Dyer), is on the run ... See full summary »

Director:

Nick Love

Writer:

Nick Love

Stars:

Danny Dyer, Tamer Hassan, Geoff Bell

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Danny Dyer	...	Frankie
Tamer Hassan	...	Charlie
Geoff Bell	...	Sammy
Georgina Chapman	...	Carly
Eddie Webber	...	Ronnie
Dan Mead	...	Danny
Linda Henry	...	Shirley
Roland Manookian	...	Sonny
Arturo Venegas	...	Mayor
Camille Coduri	...	Nora
Martin Marquez	...	Pepe
Andy Linton	...	Joe
Sally Watkins	...	Mum
Eduardo Duro	...	Carlos
Tracy Kirby	...	Laura (as Tracey Kirby)

Storyline

Set in the Thatcher era with the cool sounds of the 80's, THE BUSINESS is an action packed gangster flick set in Spain's sun drenched Costa Del crime. Frankie (Danny Dyer), is on the run from the high-rise's of South London to a new life in Malaga with nothing but a tin stuffed full of cash. Having no idea that this delivery of cash to super-suave playboy and ex-con, Charlie (Tamer Hassan), will change his life forever, he soon becomes one of the gang, and finds himself drawn into a flamboyant and violent world of organized crime.

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Plot Keywords:

spain | organized crime | gangster | blood spatter | wetting pants | 

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Taglines:

Good fellows in the sun.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for pervasive language and drug content, violence and some sexuality

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [uk]

Country:

UK Spain

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

2 September 2005 (UK)

Also Known As:

Biznisz

Filming Locations:

Almuñécar, Granada, Andalucía, Spain

Box Office

Budget:

£2,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£531,267 (UK) (2 September 2005)

Gross:

£1,144,526 (UK) (9 September 2005)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Vertigo Films, Monkey Productions S.L., Powder Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The DVD features an alternate ending where Frankie meets Carly at the border. There she promptly tells the border guard where to find drugs in Frankie's car.

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Goofs

The film is set in the early 1980s however the alloy wheels fitted to the Porsche 928 featured in the film are from a much later model and weren't available until 1994.

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Quotes

Frankie: My old man wrote me a letter from prison once. It said if you don't want to end up in here, stay away from crime, women and drugs. Trouble is, that don't leave you much else to do, does it?

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Crazy Credits

Director would like to thank and dedicate the film to The Witch

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Connections

Referenced in SPGtv: An Exclusive Interview with Danny Dyer (2008)

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Soundtracks

"Call Me"
Composed by Deborah Harry and Giorgio Moroder
Performed by Blondie

User Reviews

Love focuses on the style but forgets the substance

Frankie is just a typical South London chav (or whatever they were called back then) until he runs an errand to the south of Spain for a local gangster. He delivers a bag to Charlie in the Costa del Crime and gets taken on as his driven. As time goes by Frankie becomes more than just "the kid Frankie" and this continues even when Charlie's violently irrational partner Sam gets back on the scene. However as the cocaine high of the 80's comes, the risks of his criminal live come all the realer to Frankie.

Clearly aiming to be some sort of "Costa del Goodfellas" story, Nick Love's film is a very by-the-numbers sort of affair that relies too much on the superficial things while forgetting things like characters and narrative. The storyline is very basic and it is all pretty obvious what the arch of the story will be, if not the exact detail. Love has put more effort into capturing the feel of the 1980's which, in fairness he does pretty well thanks to his set and costume people as well as a constant pop music soundtrack. This is all well and good and the story itself moves forward with this style as its driver but it doesn't really have much going on below the surface in terms of character.

Of course it doesn't really help that some of the performances are weak. Dyer does his usual cockney geezer thing and does change across the film (albeit in a basic way) but his narration is terrible. It feels like he is just reading the words and certainly isn't delivering them with any sense of who is character is or with any sense of emotion or understanding of the story he is telling. Hassan is a solid presence and actually does well with his character in the later stages of the film. Bell is obvious but OK while Chapman isn't half as sexy as she clearly has been told she is.

Overall then a fairly so-so British film that looks "the business" in regards the period and 80's gimmicks but really doesn't have much else going for. Maybe worth a look though if your expectations are reasonably low.