I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (2003)

            A credit to advertising, the preview was better than the film.  Clive Owen plays, Will, a strong, silent and very boring retired criminal.  He's sort of the poor man's Clint Eastwood ala Unforgiven (1992).  However, we're never sure what he did before his retirement, although he has a reputation that seems to keep bad guys skittering out of his way.  Regardless, some very nasty folks mistreat a young man named Davey and Will seeks revenge.  We suspect there's a relationship, and about half way through the film, the screenplay reveals that Davey was his brother.  There's also a woman named Helen in the mix.  She's played by the English actress, Charlotte Rampling.  We're not sure what she's doing in the story, until the dialogue reveals a past love interest with Will.  None of these relationships are clear, or explained or developed.  The motivation for Davey's rape seems weak and we also don't know why Will retired for three years except for a single comment about a "breakdown."

            While the relationships are vague, the basic revenge plot is quite specific and reminiscent of old westerns.  However it plods along with a lot of threatening dark scenes, presumably in England, and not much action.  The dialogue by the characters is delivered in new age sound bytes.  Instead of sounding tough, it sounds stilted and unreal.  Then when the climax does arrive it's like an afterthought, quickly tossed in to end the story.  There's a potential anticlimax, but it doesn't really work and we're left dangling with half a resolution, wishing that Will had stayed in retirement.

            It would be fun to see Owen and Eastwood in a staring contest.  Eastwood would win and Owen would put us to sleep. 

            Reviewed November 3, 2005                        Copyright 2005 Charles T. Markee

            MPAA: Rated R for language, a rape scene, violent images and brief drug use.