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Layer Cake

Layer Cake

Drama · Thriller · Crime · 2004

When a seemingly straight-forward drug deal goes awry, XXXX has to break his die-hard rules and turn up the heat, not only to outwit the old regime and come out on top, but to save his own skin...

Movie details

Layer Cake

“The art of good business is being a good middleman.”

2004 Drama · Thriller · Crime 1h 45m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.2 / 10

207K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

81 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

73 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.9 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

When a seemingly straight-forward drug deal goes awry, XXXX has to break his die-hard rules and turn up the heat, not only to outwit the old regime and come out on top, but to save his own skin...

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Layer Cake?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Matthew Vaughn

Written by

J.J. Connolly

Daniel Craig

Daniel Craig

XXXX

Sienna Miller

Sienna Miller

Tammy

Tom Hardy

Tom Hardy

Clarkie

Colm Meaney

Colm Meaney

Gene

George Harris

George Harris

Morty

Sally Hawkins

Sally Hawkins

Slasher

Kenneth Cranham

Kenneth Cranham

Jimmy Price

Court is in session

Put Layer Cake on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Big-Idea Head

“Form is the argument.”

Every composed frame and deliberate cut is evidence that control can be thrilling in its own right.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Technique in search of a pulse.”

Immaculate construction is still construction. The film may be too busy proving its craft to feel alive.