I'll Sleep When I'm Dead DVD Review:

At first glance this appears a simple revenge story similar to director Mike Hodges’ earlier acclaimed film Get Carter. Clive Owen plays Will, a once widely feared gangster who has left behind his criminal past and opted for a lonely, simple life in the country. Yet when he hears of the suspicious death of his younger brother Davey (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) he is soon sucked back into his shady past. The familiar question of whether someone can ever truly change is a dominant theme, but added to the usual formula is the issue of male rape. Hodges bravely films the scene in a stark and uncompromising way. The fear and disgust of homosexuality in such a macho world is also dealt with head on.

However, praise for handling such an unpleasant subject honestly aside, there are a lot of problems with this film. For a start the pace is deathly slow at times. This might have been intended to build up tension for Will’s return or to produce a brooding tone, but really it just tests the patience.

There is ample time to develop the characters as the film crawls along, but by the end we are still left none the wiser about the majority of them. Most just appear as cockney geezer stereotypes. This is particularly frustrating in Malcolm McDowell’s role as the rapist Boad. His link with Davey is confusing and it is difficult to be convinced of his motivation for rape when we know so little about him.

Who Helen (Charlotte Rampling) is supposed to be is also not particularly clear. By half way through you can assume she was Will’s lover, but it would’ve been nice to establish this more quickly. The idea of Will being involved in an older, middle class woman is interesting, but is never fully explored. Neither is the threat to Will from Turner (Ken Stott), the man who has taken control of his turf. This never really amounts to much and doesn’t produce a great sense of danger anyway.

In fact there is never any suspense over Will’s fate at all. That is perhaps Hodges intention, we know what Will will decide to do, it is inevitable because Hodges believes no-one can ever escape their past. Being predictable on purpose does have its drawbacks though, namely sustaining interest and this barely does.
Thankfully, while he’s not wandering about looking like a vaguely disgruntled bear, Clive Owen makes good use of the little dialogue he has and forces you to watch.

It is always refreshing when films don’t patronise the audience, leaving them to work out the loose ends for themselves. Hodges probably took this a little too far. Just a smidgen of exposition would’ve worked wonders. When loose ends simply become distracting, or stand in the way of character development, something is seriously wrong.

Extras

There is a behind the scenes look with Hodges and writer Trevor Preston. The cast also chip in to give an explanation of their characters, plus some film critics discuss the main themes of the film. More interestingly, Hodges and Preston get a chance to answer their critics during the commentary, which actually does help you to appreciate the film better. Preston probably gets a little too defensive in his justifications though, referring to those who doubted his understanding of criminals as ‘pricks from Oxford anyway’. Not exactly constructive. Two deleted scenes are also included.



Natalie Hunt