It took nearly eight years for Ray Winstone and Ian McShane – who championed the script by Sexy Beast writers Louis Mellis and David Scinto – to get 44-Inch Chest made. You can see why some backers might have been a bit reticent, as it’s not your usual movie. Largely set in a single room, it is dark, tense and sometimes strange and surreal. Some things are deliberately left unexplained, others are hinted at but never made explicit. There are times when the whole thing feels like a play, and while it might look from the outside like a gangster flick, it is anything but.
Winstone plays Colin, a man whose world has just crashed down around him due to his wife (Whalley) telling him that she’s sleeping with another man and is about to leave him. To ‘help’ Colin, his friends, Meredith (McShane), Peanut (Hurt), Archie (Wilkinson) and Mal (Dillane), kidnap Colin’s wife’s lover – a French waiter simply referred to as Loverboy – and take him to a secluded, derelict house so the cuckold can get his revenge.
Over the course of the evening, the men discuss the situation, with Colin initially almost paralysed and barely able to move, before he moves through a variety of emotions, from intense anger to literally becoming delusional. In his mind what has happened to him is inexplicable, as he believes he was a great husband, and perhaps the issue is that he loved too much, but whether that’s true or not, the question becomes whether he can move forward and if killing Loverboy is the answer.
On the surface the film seems to be a pretty straightforward chamber drama – seven characters, one setting and a minimum of plot – but as it goes on it reveals itself to be a rich, multi-layered experience. The most obvious example of this is the sequences where Colin literally becomes delusional – including the rather disturbing sight of John Hurt’s head on Joanne Whalley’s body – which may alienate some viewers, but is actually rather fascinating. Are we meant to see the film as literally showing us what’s going on? Is it allegorical? Is the fact each of the men seem to represent a different side of what people think it ‘mean’ to be a man’, a coincidence, dramatic conceit, or does it suggest there’s something deeper going on? I won’t say too much, as 44-Inch Chest is the sort of film deliberately designed to be read on different levels, and that’s part of the joy of the film.
It’s odd really, because normally when people say a film is ‘stagey’, they mean it in a derogatory way, suggesting it’s too static and mannered, but here that staginess (even though it isn’t based on a play) is to the film’s benefit. It’s one of those rare occasions where with a small bunch of character and a simple set-up, a film has managed to capture the tension and intimacy you can get with a good piece of live theatre. It really does draw you in, getting inside Colin’s mind.
Much praise has to go to the actors for achieving this intimacy. Winstone and McShane are both utterly superb, and in a just world John Hurt would have been Oscar-nominated as the foul-mouthed, unpleasant, angry-with-the-world Old Man Peanut. The script is also exceptional, which as Winstone has said, almost manages to turn the cursing world of old school Brit hard men into poetry. There are moments when characters are pretty much talking to the camera in close-up, and while in most films this would quickly seem dull, thanks to great acting and writing, it’s riveting.
It may look like a gangster type hard-man movie from the outside, but it’s actually a rich, emotional journey into one man’s emotional hell.
The DVD comes with a couple of featurettes. ‘Story Behind 44-Inch Chest’ is an interesting look behind-the-scenes at how Winstone championed the screenplay, feeling it was truly superior writing. It then continues on through finding a director and the filming, discussing how they tried to go about making a dynamic movie despite the fact it’s largely set in a single room. The other featurette is far stranger, featuring Colin’s friends in talking heads mode, such as Peanut discussing how he died two years after the events in the movie happened. It’s rather peculiar, and I can only suppose these short snippets were originally filmed to act as a coda to the movie, but they are rather random.
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CLICK HERE to read our interview with Ray Winstone about the film
Overall Verdict: An excellent film that, while initally seeming quite simple, offers a rich, multi-layered journey into one man’s soul.
Special Features:
‘Story Behind 44-Inch Chest’ Featurette
‘Up Close and Personal’ Featurette
Reviewer: Tim Isaac
