Cult director Mike Hodges (Get Carter, Croupier) specializes in refined crime pictures in which the players have a fatalistic sense of acceptance. His nocturnal noir I'll Sleep When I'm Dead begins with a series of seemingly disconnected storylines involving a charismatic London drug dealer Davey (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), his best mate (Jamie Foreman), and a nasty upper-class thug (Malcolm McDowell) with a taste for young men. When Davey's corpse turns up floating in a tub of cold water and blood, Davey's brother Will (stonily handsome Croupier star Clive Owen) returns to the city from his reclusive life as a woodsman (which he adopted after leaving the crime boss life) and sets about investigating his brother's death. Will also eventually hooks up with old flame Helen (Charlotte Rampling), a character who doesn't really fit in, except for the fact that all film noirs need a femme fatale. Fortunately, Hodges keeps the rest of the plot compelling (if also elliptical) as the characters move through their own dark stomping grounds--both physical and mental. Recommended. (J.M. Anderson)
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
Paramount, 103 min., R, VHS: $29.99, DVD: $29.99, Nov. 16 Volume 19, Issue 6
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
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