Low-budget hijinks pack out this caper from director Zak Fenning, which finds two low-level criminals wildly out of their depth in gangland London.
Hapless scammers Ant and Dick (Tony Cook and Jonny Weldon) pick the wrong mark when they defraud crime boss Emery (Tomi May) of £100,000. Handing over their scam app isn’t enough; they start working for Emery’s brutal lieutenant Clarkey (Bradley Turner)— in way over their heads with no chance of ever paying off what they owe. Power struggles in Emery’s gang, led by the ambitious Scarlett (Rina Lipa), give Ant the shred of hope that he and Dick may one day escape to Greece, where Ant’s girlfriend Thea (Christina Gkioka) is waiting. The question is, will Emery ever let it go?
A Gangster’s Life feels like a throwback to comedy films of the ’70s or ’80s, built to drop into established double-acts and let them do their thing in movie theatres. That piles the pressure on Cook and Weldon to be more than a pun on Ant and Dec, but they make a watchable duo constantly out of their depth after the opening scene sets the tone with the pair strung from the ceiling and getting a lesson from Emery. What follows is not much plot, but a fair few “Dick” jokes and menacing types who establish that one eye is very much on the ’90s heyday of London gangster flicks. A fun nod to a Bond title sequence, complete with, well, goats, seals the deal that A Gangster’s Life is a love letter to Brit cinema as much as a crime comedy.
While Fenning rustles up a certain charm from his budget, eking the most from locations in Kent to Crete, the emphasis falls on the gag rate. Roy Rivett’s script serves up lots of potential for comedy, from gambling dens to awkward poolside dinner parties, but the jokes don’t quite come fast enough. That said, it’s hard not to warm to the central pairing. A Gangster’s Life is best when Cook—long suffering—and Weldon— grimacing eyerolls—are rationalising how they muddle through situations they are in no way equipped for, from shootouts to trying to secure some lamb in Greece. Both actors are clearly having a good time, have comic chops to spare, and are clearly on the ascendant with respective recent roles including You and One Day. Rina Lipa, sister of Dua, is eye-catching casting, although her scheming Scarlett doesn’t get much screen time.
Around the central duo bubble some underdeveloped support hoods and holiday friends. Surprisingly, there’s a pretty bold break halfway through where it looks like the hapless duo might finally be able to hide off-grid in Greece. That means the duo swap third cogs when Sasha Latoya’s unwitting partner is left in the UK, effectively replaced by Thea in the script. The story behind that shift leaves a little bit of pathos on the floor. A Gangster’s Life could have benefited from a bit more of that.
Fenning pulls off the impressive feat of photographing, directing and editing, a real commitment that helps him stretch his resources, but probably one too many hats. Many scenes could be tighter, the structure a little more disrupted, and some sound and visual effect issues disappointingly derail things. Having established the sense of a bullet-riddled sitcom, A Gangster’s Life would have particularly benefited from locking down the timing and letting Cook and Weldon off the leash.
A fun post-credit fake trailer for a particularly low-res, jump-cutting, crime caper shows some of the daring over-the-top fun it would have been good to see in the main feature. A Gangster’s Life plays it just a little too straight as a menacing crime comedy, but there’s a feeling that a lot is bubbling away in the wood chipper and a lot more to see from the cast and crew in future.
A Gangster’s Life is on digital from Miracle Media on 19 January.
