Easy Money
I’m not sure what the Laplanders have been
sprinkling on their Weetbix of late, but the Nordic lands have been
churning out hit after hit these part few years - Let the Right One
In, Headhunters, Troll Hunter, a certain trilogy about a girl with a
tattoo - that Hollywood is falling over itself to remake. Easy Money
is a stylish crime drama that is also, like the majority of the above,
based on a highly-regarded novel and now slated for a reimagining at the
hands of the Yanks.
A brilliant university student of lowly
origins, JW (Joel Kinnaman) works like a dog to allow himself to hobnob
intermittently with his clique of wealthy, jetsetting friends. During
one such ritzy soiree at a country manor he becomes besotted with Sophie
(newcomer Lisa Henni), the girlfriend of a wealthy chum. Desperate to
maintain his facade as a cashed-up playboy, JW turns to his boss at the
taxi company he works for, a crooked Serb with ties to organised crime,
and lets it be known he’s willing to do almost anything for a sizable
payday. Following these brash assertions he promptly becomes embroiled
in a war between Yugoslavian drug lords to control an impending shipment
of cocaine worth millions, and as the pressure builds the hapless Lap
chap will need to muster all his wits to escape with his life, let alone
a cut of the profits and the ability to shower his blonde beau with
caviar, metaphorically speaking.
Easy Money is, like its leading man,
a class act from start to finish. The pacing is perfect and the
cinematography intense and immersive, without relying on too much of
that jittery hand-held bullshit that wrecked the second and third
Bourne films. But it’s the performances that really lift the piece
from the ranks of another above average European crime drama to the
status of world class thriller. Kinnaman is still fairly obscure at
this stage but clearly destined for great things: in 2010 he signed with
Johnny Depp’s agent and is scheduled to star in the impending Robocop
remake alongside veterans Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson and Michael
Keaton. The ensemble cast of relative unknowns that play opposite him
are also universally brilliant - names like Matias Padin Varela and
Mahmut Suvakci might not mean much to the average cinemagoer, but these
guys do a fantastic job of bringing their gritty underground milieu to
life, and look convincingly menacing whilst going about it. Stylishly
executed, superbly directed, and one heck of a wild ride.
Bonus Features
None unfortunately: Easy Money is
bare bones.
