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The Dominator reviews
United International Pictures
Viewed at Manchester Showcase Cinemas.
Telephone 0161 220 8765 for programme information
- Cert: 18
- Running time: 105 minutes
- Year: 1997
- Released: 26th September 1997
- Widescreen Ratio : 1.85:1
- Rating: 8/10
Director:
- Antonia Bird
(Priest, Safe)
Producers:
- David M. Thompson and Elinor Day
Screenplay:
- Ronan Bennett
Original Score :
- Andy Roberts, Paul Conboy and Adrian Corker
Cast :
- Ray : Robert Carlyle (The Full Monty, Carla’s Song, Go Now, Priest)
Dave: Ray Winstone (Nil By Mouth, Ladybird Ladybird, Quadrophenia, Scum)
Stevie : Steven Waddington (The One That Got Away (TV), Carrington)
Connie : Lena Headey (Band of Gold (TV), The Jungle Book, Remains of the Day)
Julian : Philip Davis (Quadrophenia, The Wall, Secrets and Lies)
Chris : Andrew Tiernan (Cracker: To Say I Love You (TV), Safe)
Sonny : Peter Vaughn (The Crucible, Remains of the Day, Straw Dogs)
Jason : Damon Albarn
Sarah : Christine Tremarco
Alice : Sue Johnstone (Brookside (TV), Brassed Off, Crime Traveller (TV))
Face is the name given to the Faces attempting to pull off adangerous heist. Each of the five ‘faces’ go into the heist for their ownreasons, but when they come out with much less money than anticipated, one ofthe gang turns murderous in a bid to take the entire loot. With the policeon their trail, there’s a race against time and the law, to find out which oneis the rat in the house and then to recover the missing money.
The five ‘faces’ in this film are Ray (Robert Carlyle), a cocksure manwho knows what he wants, and how to get it; Dave (Ray Winstone), an olderand heavier-built man with a daughter opting to date the boyfriend of mostparents’ nightmares; Julian (Philip Davis), one-part family man, one-partpsychopath, who intends moving upmarket very soon; Stevie (StevenWaddington), who first met Ray in prison and was taken under his wing. Heidolises Ray and will do anything for him; and Jason (Damon Albarn),a young man in his first heist, trying to follow in his uncle Sonny’s footsteps.
The main star of the film, Robert Carlylse, is an actor who can always berelied upon to turn his hand to any form of character, be it drama, as in thisand the BBC’s Screen Two film Go Now in which he played a footballer whocontracts multiple sclerosis, and comedy as recently seen in The FullMonty. In this film he certainly doesn’t fail to disappoint.
Most of the rest of the cast is made up of those British actors that you knowwho they are, but can’t always put a name to the face. Each of them get fullyinto the part to create a believable and engaging storyline. As seen in thecast list above, some of the actors have crossed paths before, and some withthe director.
Lena Headey plays Connie, Ray’s girlfriend, who wants to stay with him,but doesn’t know how much longer she can put up with his lifestyle. She usedto go on protest marches with him, but Ray’s moved on from that, so shecontinues to attend the latest one, a Kurdish demonstration, with Ray’s mother,Alice, played by Sue Johnstone, who will be most well-known to us asSheila Grant in Channel 4’s Brookside.
The cast is fleshed out with Andrew Tiernan, who I remember from thefirst series of Cracker, as the boyfriend of Dave’s daughter, Sarah(played by Christine Tremarco), movie stalwart Peter Vaughn asSonny, who seems to have been in films since the year dot, and making his moviedebut as Sonny’s nephew Jason, is Damon Albarn, lead singer of pop-groupBlur, who turns in a fairly decent performance as the new recruit fora gang heist, but the part he’s been given is too limited to tell whether ornot he has a career in film.
Financed by the BBC, this is a fine crime thriller worthy of your attention,and another reason for you to support the British film industry, other than thefact that it’s the second superb Robert Carlyle starrer released within a month.And don’t think that just because the film is about five men pulling off aheist which goes wrong, that it’s just a British version of ReservoirDogs. This film has a style and a cast all of its own, and comeswell-recommended.
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1997.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.