I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (2003)

Once upon a time director Mike Hodges made a classic British film ("Get Carter") which was concerned with a gangster avenging his brother's death.  Perhaps Hodges was hoping for similar success with this film on the same theme, but one can't always return to past triumphs.  For a start it would take a lot to convince me that Clive Owen, who also starred in Hodges' "Croupier" (a kinda interesting flick) is more than a very wooden presence with his non-charismatic zen-like demeanor and scruffy looks.  Here he plays the elder brother (now retired from criminal life) of petty crook, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who has committed suicide after being raped by Malcolm McDowell.  Ho hum, I'm bored already.  We don't get much in the way of explanations other than that married McDowell didn't like the way Meyers carried himself, and in fact the movie is full of loose ends and unnecessary characters.  The two females in the cast, Charlotte Rampling and Sylvia Sims, have thankless roles, and I never did work out if Rampling was a sister, a mother or an ex-girlfriend of Owen.  The actor who best acquitted himself was Jamie Foreman -- not a name that I know well -- who interestingly is the son of a notorious 60s' gangster.  It felt as if everyone concerned got bored with making this film or perhaps the money just ran out before they could wrap things up.