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A few years ago, the British Film Industry meant certain rules: period dramas, repressed characters and the credit 'A Merchant-Ivory film'. Then, in 1998, along came Guy Ritchie with Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels and thus the Brit-flick was born.
These days, your average British film isn't complete without a few loveable rogues, copious amounts of Cockney rhyming slang and an expletive filled script. Nick Love's follow up to The Football Factory features all of these, together with a photogenic Spanish setting.
Frankie (Danny Dyer) is an average Jack The Lad from a rough South London council estate. After a violent altercation with his stepfather, he's sent away to Spain's ex-pat community by his well-connected family where Charlie, a local drug-runner, takes him under his wing and shows him the glamorous side of life on the 'Costa Del Crime'.
All is going swimmingly until the arrival of Charlie's psychotic partner-in-crime, Sammy - a man whose idea of fun is testing out bullet-proof jackets with real bullets. He takes an instant dislike to Frankie, and when Sammy's unfeasibly young and gorgeous girlfriend is thrown into the mix, Frankie finds out that life in Spain isn't so much fun after all.
The main problem with The Business is that it's all been done before - notably in Goodfellas, a film that Nick Love is quite obviously a massive fan of. All of Scorsese's masterpiece's tricks are here - the excessive voiceover, the freezeframes, the non-linear plot, even the 'riches to rags' arc of the storyline.
Yet the trouble with using a Scorsese film as your template is that you're inevitably going to pale in comparison. Love's script is not strong enough, with too many characters reduced to stereotypes. There's also nobody particularly likeable, with the possible exception of Frankie. After 90 minutes in the company of these people, your overriding desire is for a warm bath.
Danny Dyer, who's been hanging on the fringes of fame for some years now without ever quite making it, does an excellent job as Frankie - he perfectly conveys the 'fish out of water' aspect and gradually develops a cocky swagger which is very believable. Tamar Hussan meanwhile steals the show as Frankie, giving a performance of immense charisma, which makes you wonder why he's not a bigger star.
Other actors don't fare as well though. Geoff Bell doesn't convey the requisite amount of menace, and becomes more of a cartoon gangster (although he's not served well by the script). Georgina Chapman meanwhile, though undoubtedly easy on the eye, doesn't particularly convince as a gangster's moll, and her relationship with Sammy is risible to say the least.
However, Love does display some promising touches as a director - the striking primary colours of the opening stages of the film become more sepia-tinged as the film gets darker, and it's subtle touches like this that show that Love is certainly a name to watch out as a filmmaker. Yet too much of The Business is like a homage to Ritchie or Scorsese to be taken seriously.
Of course, Love never intended The Business to be taken seriously. It's an obvious fairy tale, a bit of escapism to watch on a boys night in with a few tins of lager to accompany it. Next time though, it would be nice to see Love use his obvious talent in a vehicle a bit more original than the tired old British gangster film.
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