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Layer Cake

As with most movies of the gang/drug crime-genre, Layer Cake starts off with an extended explanation of all of the key components. Much like Casino, it provides a list, in brevity of the various players, and the way that the operation functions. At some point in every crime film, it seems as though this junction is necessary: ”This guy buys the drugs, this guy cuts the drugs, this guy sells the drugs, and, oh yeah, that guy is the supplier. That is the supplier’s right-hand man, that is his addict girlfriend, and that guy…well, he is just reckless.” By this right, Layer Cake fits comfortably, almost too comfortably, into an already established format for the way in which this type of film must establish character relations. In Ocean’s Eleven and Snatch, the cast is introduced in much of the same manner. This is the same for films like Goodfellas, and most other notable American crime dramas. Despite the obvious redundancy of this way of establishing character relations, this is satisfactory. In fact, I freely admit that I generally enjoy this type of character introduction. Despite the generic layout, and its predictability, I enjoy seeing which characters fulfill which parts (Simply, who they cast). After watching several films of this nature, one becomes familiar with certain actors that reappear. It is interesting to consider that the mob boss in Snatch plays a nobody in the film Lock Stocked and Two Smoking Barrels. Robert Deniro goes from bigshot in Casino, to bus-driver in A Bronx Tale. Moreover, this system is simply convenient. One does not have to overthink the ways in which plot extensions lead to character development. We are already familiar, based on the framework that has been established, which characters fit which parts. In reflection, it would be interesting to see how other film genres could incorporate the same tactic. I imagine romance films that introduce the lovers, and various other conflicting characters immediately: “This is the jealous overbearing lover, that chick is the love interest, that guy love’s her madly, but is poor, that is the rich father, and that is the mother who is having an affair with the neighbor.”