The title “Sexy Beast” presumably applies to Ray Winstone’s bulky, yellow-blond Gary “Gal” Dove, first seen reclining under the Spanish sun wearing only yellow bikini trunks and muttering “you could fry eggs on my stomach” to himself.

At the start of Jonathan Glazer’s playful, fatalistic comedy noir, written with Pinteresque wit and bursts of vicious invective by Louis Mellis and David Scinto, Gal finds himself in paradise. Retired to the Costa del Sol with his adored, zaftig wife Deedee, an ex-porn star, Gal toasts in the heat, enjoys a drink or two, jokes with his Spanish pool boy, even has nearby English friends. Then a huge boulder rolls down from the hill above his white villa, nearly squashing Gal and plunging into the middle of his pool, cracking tile.

The car-size rock sent by the gods proves a harbinger of things to come. For a time, the entrance of Don Logan gets a big buildup, as in a play. When told by their friends Aitch and Jackie that Don Logan has called and is coming for a visit, Gal and Deedee are not pleased. Don, it seems, has a bit of work for Gal, a former London criminal who did his time and has now left that life behind. Gal doesn’t want to go back and promises Deedee he will turn down Don. The woman, acted with loving sensuality by the azure-eyed Amanda Redman, believes her lemon-haired bear of a man.

But the go-between, played with bristling abusiveness by Ben Kingsley, will not take no for an answer. Mellis and Scinto have done their best writing for Kingsley, who spits out verbally inventive insults like a Gatling gun. He insults Gal’s beloved wife, calling her “Dirty Deedee,” and lets it be known that he has slept with Jackie. Don is a terrorist with words. He is also a tyrant, who takes over Gal’s house, always insisting that Gal will do the job.

For a time, Glazer’s film builds suspense by raising a question of when Don will explode into violence, as the four friends virtually become the prisoner of his rage and the victims of his slashing wit. In some ways, “Sexy Beast” becomes, through Kingsley’s volatile, declamatory performance, almost Elizabethan in its ferocity: Marlowe in the 21st century. Don Logan comes across as a veritable Tamburlaine. It is a brilliant performance that only a great classical actor could muster, full of fire and ice.

Ultimately, as the standoff in Spain comes to a head, Don heads back to England but refuses to stop smoking on the plane and is removed, forcing him to invent accusations of sexual harassment. He returns with murder in his eye, more vicious than ever.

Glazer now insinuates glimpses of the criminal world that owns Don and is calling back poor, friendly Gal. At an orgy, the glacial-eyed crime overlord Teddy Bass, charged with reptilian cold-bloodedness by Ian McShane, catches the eye of a playboy banker, acted by upper-class imperiousness by James Fox. The glance leads to a meeting in a seemingly impregnable vault, where Teddy slips a pack of cigarettes into a safe deposit box.

After a fragmented outpouring of violence in Spain, precipitated by the Spanish boy Enrique who works for Gal, the film moves to London for the heist. Gal arrives at the posh Grosvenor House as directed by Don and lies to Teddy about the go-between. Tensions increase as Gal and the crew drill into the vault through a Turkish bath.

“Sexy Beast” ends ambiguously, and throughout , it blends the real and surreal, from the crashing boulder to fragments of dreams to a climax that cuts from underwater shots to flashes of memory. It is a gripping and dark show of virtuosity in the new British cinema by a director who has graduated from commercials and music videos. And it juxtaposes two acting styles, with the understated, likeable blond beast of Winstone withstanding the blasts of invective by the hateful Iagolike Kingsley, whose little close-cropped goatee suggests a Cockney Satan. At times, the accents are a bit thick, but that just makes you listen more attentively to dialogue that stings and sings.

3 stars

* * * * Excellent; * * * Very Good; * * Good; * Fair; open star Poor

SEXY BEAST is directed by Jonathan Glazer and written by Louis Mellis and David Scinto. Director of photography, Ivan Bird. Production design by Jan Houllevigue. Edited by John Scott and Sam Sneade. Music by Roque Banos. Produced by Jeremy Thomas. A Fox Searchlight release and presentation in association with Film Four and Kanzaman S.A., and a Recorded Picture presentation, opening today at Cinema City, Hartford. Featuring Ray Winstone, Ben Kinsley, Ian McShane, Amanda Redman, Cavan Kendall, Julianne White, Alvaro Monje and James Fox. Running time: 91 minutes. Rated R for rude and abusive talk, nudity at an orgy, bloody violence, pointblank shootings.

Originally Published: June 29, 2001 at 4:00 AM EDT