Layer Cake - Weekly Film Analysis

Layer Cake is a 2004 British crime thriller directed and produced by Matthew Vaughn, in his directional debut. The Film had a budget of $6.5 million and a box office of $11.9 million. This film may of also contributed to Daniel Craig getting the role of James Bond as he got the role 1 year after the release of 'Layer Cake',where he was very effective in the role of XXXX (an up and coming drug dealer). We can compare this British gangster film to 'Snatch' as I thought many methods of cinematography and editing were similar throughout both films, in further research I discovered both films were edited by Jon Harris explaining the similar editing style. 

There were various ways cinematographer Ben Davis gave the film a unique effect, as many different shots were used in order to portray how XXXX reacted to different situations but also was important in emphasising key scenes during the film. In the scene were XXXX commits an important murder in order to possibly save his own life there is a unique shot used where as he goes to fire the gun it zooms out ,and then back into the two characters, I thought this technique produced suspense in the scene as we were unsure if the protaganist would go through with the murder. Minimal sound was also used in this scene as we only could hear the trickling of water coming out of the hose pipe until the gun was fired,  the diegetic sound of the gun was also very sudden mirroring the cinematography which was used shocking the viewer. Both micro-features were very effective as they portrayed the character XXXX was indeed capable of murder and that this event was possibly insignificant to him, I thought the quietness of the silenced bullet possibly mirrored the insignificance felt by him as he knew he had to go through with it in order to save his own life. We later go on to find out this was not the case as his views on the situation changes leading to a complete contrast in cinematography and editing as instead of the slow calm feeling portrayed by the murder scene we see short fast clips as he finds out the truth resulting in complete chaos. 

In Conclusion I thought the use of micro-features was key in showing us how the protagonist XXXX reacted to certain situations and how they truly effected him, they also allowed suspense to be created through sound and cinematography making the film interesting to watch and creating important suspense, leaving the audience un-sure what could possibly happen next. Finally I thought the performance of Daniel Craig was outstanding as he created a convincing character who at first seemed like a genuine business man with an ordinary goal of becoming rich, but as the story becomes more complicated and he becomes all to involved in the 'Layer Cake' his performance adapts to this, leaving the audience with a strong insight about the dangers you may face as you become involved in 'The Layer Cake' in reality.