“Welcome to the layer cake, son.”

If you want peace, prepare for war. If you want a piece of cake, get a plate.

By C.A. Ramirez

This article originally appeared on Medium.com (8/2/2021). 

This noughties flick still kicks ass. 

Not long before he became 007, Daniel Craig was a nameless drug dealer in Layer Cake (2004), a UK crime thriller written by J.J. Connolly and directed by Matthew Vaughn. This film has all the glitz and bells we have come to expect from UK crime flicks  —  ark, humor, unfortunate twists, and ironic endings. Layer Cake’s unique atmosphere and criminal tone feels like a cross between the Coen brothers and Guy Ritchie, and it should stand out as such, in my humble opinion. Layer Cake has a suave and savage edge that piques your interest from beginning to end. Fans of the crime film genre outside of the UK will be saturated in the kind of violent action and dry hilarity that have made films like In Bruges and I Went Down instant classics. Layer Cake deserves equal attention as the aforementioned classics and earns it easily with one of Daniel Craig’s best performances right before his ascension as the iconic James Bond.

Image by Nicholas Rohonyi

Playing the role of, “XXXX”, Craig is a nameless cocaine distributor in London who is on the cusp of retiring until his boss sets him up as a patsy for the kidnapping of a wealthy and dangerous organized crime figure. I am a fall-down, Super Nintendo, 90s RPG addict of the, so watching a film with a nameless drug dealing anti-hero rubs me in so many right places it ought to be wrong. Craig’s narration comes to us at Layer Cake’s start and once more at its ending, and I dare any semi-sober fan of film to notice. Films like Memento and Dark City have great stories that surround characters with identity crises, but those are all very on-the-nose and are more often an integral part of the plot. Layer Cake pulls this off in such a subtle and unique way that it manages to do what my favorite video games, like Shadowrun, once did. They put a player in the role of a hero whose identity isn’t based on their name as much as it is in the makeup of their character.

From the first scene, we are given the layout of our world and our hero’s role in it through Craig’s narration. This exposition is cast against a brief history of the drug trade in England, starting with the “Summer of Love” and culminating into what “XXXX” is; a refined cog in the criminal drug trade, blissfully unaware that his time is short despite his sharp wit. The pacing is top-notch, and there is never a dull moment, nor a wasted one. Connolly’s script is electrically charged with hilariously tense twists and turns. Layer Cake takes us on a wild ride through London as “XXXX” and his band of drug-dealing cohorts scramble to sell stolen ecstasy pills before Dragan, a head-chopping Serbian hitman, tracks them down and kills them.

Layer Cake has a cast of insane talent, pumping life into London’s criminal underworld with a nearly unrecognizable Ben Whishaw and a young Tom Hardy. Colm Meaney and dominant UK talent Michael Gambon steal more than a few scenes as blue-blooded mobsters. Director Matthew Vaughn produced “Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels” and “Snatch” prior to directing Layer Cake. The feeling and fiber of those two films, especially in their dark humor, are woven in and out of each scene of this one subtly enough that each shot is a familiar curiosity. Fans of UK crime dramas will be right at home while those who want more grit will welcome the visceral tone and tension Layer Cake lays down from minute one.

Gene, XXXX, and Morty (Layer Cake, 2004)