A tough, gritty, drama telling the tale of a heist gone wrong, this was billed as Britain's answer to RESERVOIR DOGS, but apart from the basic plot line the two stories are very different indeed. The reason FACE works is down to the fine acting on display from a top-notch cast, who lift the story to heights that it never could have reached on its own, and it makes us actually care for the people involved, even if they are all criminals and murderers.Robert Carlyle excels as the tough crook who regrets his life of crime, but who is torn as he needs the money from his robberies and the life is the only one that he knows. Carlyle puts in a fine sympathetic turn as the main star of the film, this was before he went big in the blockbusters of today and before the budgets of his films began to blossom. However the rest of the cast must not be forgotten as it is very much an ensemble piece, Ray Winstone once again shows he is a force to be reckoned with as the hulking gangster who is very much a human being. Steven Waddington plays the role of the dim-witted but nice friend of Carlyle's, who lives in a fantasy world of novels and science fiction instead of the real world. The only bad choice of actor comes in the form of Damon Albarn, who proves that he really can't act at all and never should have tried.Welcome humour and comic relief come in the form of Phil Davis, who manages to steal every scene he's in as a psychotic shotgun-wielding maniac. His character is perfectly drawn and absolutely hilarious. Along with the character driven drama and more betrayals, double crosses and fights than you can shake a stick at, there is some fast-paced, thrilling action, such as a police car being shotgunned and exploding or a shoot out at a police station.Definitely opting for realism instead of gloss, there is also some hefty violence definitely not for squeamish viewers; characters are 'done over' by being kicked in the face repeatedly, blood splatters walls, and people are shot at point blank range. However thanks to the high calibre acting, FACE is endlessly rewarding and contains enough twists in the tale to keep even the most casual viewer intrigued until the very end. Very good indeed.

Face is among the subgenre of movies that can still blindside me with severe mediocrity. There are intermittent times when I simply cannot resist a cheeky gangster flick, and Face is one of the candygrams that blows up in your face. There's nothing inherently wrong with the story except that it has been used more times than a hooker's hanky, the basic premise anyway.The film begins with Robert Carlyle and Ray Winstone, two of England's great screen badasses, breaking into a drug dealer's apartment, posing as police officers in order to raid his cash and his stash. The next scene begins the unfolding of the mainline of the plot, a bank robbery. And they have their logistics man, Robert Carlyle's old friend from prison, et cetera. Then the third event in the film is the inevitable betrayal within the heist crew. And of course there's Carlyle's nagging, guilt-laying girlfriend. I've always wondered what else will happen in a crime film whenever the story's pivotal heist occurs in the first twenty minutes other than betrayals and nagging token female characters. These filmmakers don't seem to have shared my curiosity.Aside from a small portion of time given to Carlyle's backstory as a war protester, Face is just another recycled crime flick for teenagers telling the age-old tale of a group of violent criminals and what happens to them after they steal a lot of money. It even employs another thriller gimmick: It's set over the course of 48 hours in and around the city, in this case London. What director Antonia Bird, who did later direct a decent Robert Carlyle movie called Ravenous, tries to do is gloss the film with grunge, badassery and style as a substitute for expanding on what she pulled off the assembly line, one of the results of this choice being a soundtrack that is unusually bad for an English gangster film.I'm sure I'm not being fair enough to this movie. There are several assembly line movies that are entertaining enough, but frankly I don't feel that requires an explanation that differentiates between this and them. To me, if you're making an insincere movie, the audience has the right to be subjective. Whether one considers it a good movie or not is now pure luck. With Face, I was bored and cynical. If it were on TV on a lazy day or when I need to kill a little time, I might stay for a few minutes of the shootout in the street (in which you can briefly hear an unmistakable soundbite of Tim Roth's wailing early in Reservoir Dogs), or for one good if very brief scene, where Carlyle is comforted by Winstone by hugging him when he's crying.

I just watched it last night at 12:45 am it was the late night movie on channel 9 and i have to say it is brilliant from start to end. This movie kind of reminds me of the Australian movie two hands. That sort of story were someone pulls a job and the dough disappears into thin air and the great leading actors in this movie. Robert Carlye i remember him as the villain Renard from 007 film the world is not enough and ray winstone i have seen in few other films as well. I hope they make a sequel to face because it was a great movie and the Americans should take lessons from this movie and they should also start thinking about quality rather than $$$$ the English take pride in what they do and they should be proud of that.

Having seen FACE makes you wonder how badly written a script must be for it to be turned down for funding and produced scripts don`t come much worse than Ronan Bennett`s FACE . First of all what`s with the politics ? Ray used to be a commie ? Fair enough , if you can`t be a communist when you`re young when can you be one ? But this has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with either the plot or character development . The characters discuss the plight of the Kurds but this leads absolutely nowhere , and it should also be pointed out not all Kurdish groups are alligned to ultra left wing politics either ( Anyone heard of Ansar Al Islam ? ) so Bennett`s made a double blunder on that front . Secondly there`s incidents which like the politics just seem to be included for the sake of it . Remember the firefight of BLACK HAWK DOWN ? Well we see a couple of similar gun battles here . That`s right a British crime thriller emulates the battle of Mogadishu , oh and there`s a bizarre scene of the bad guys opening the boot of their car to let out one of their collegues - who`s been tied up ! - in the middle of a crowded street !! - while the police are searching for them !!! . Finally I wish to apologise if I used the word "Characters " in this review since this may give the impression Bennett has written characters - He hasnt . He`s written cyphers to speak lines and push the plot along . Take Stevie for example who`s written as an idiotic comic book geek but still beats people up when the script demands it Director Antonia Bird manages to rise above the script which when you stop to consider how bad the script is doesn`t come across as much of a compliment - That`s because it`s not supposed to be much of a compliment . Bird too hits us over the head with politics like having buildings covered in political graffiti and anti racist posters . Did I mention there`s no political subtext in this film ? because the director seems to think there might be , and despite enjoying the Britpop soundtrack there`s no real context for having all these songs included . If I remember correctly this was a problem with Bird`s later film RAVENOUS of having a jarring soundtrack and it should be pointed out that often the music drowns out the dialogue which is difficult to make out in the first place due to poor soundmixing It`s difficult to believe after reading this review but I awarded FACE six out of ten mainly due to the cast doing such a great job . Carlyle`s accent is faultless , Phil Davis plays Julian ( Strange name for a psychotic nutter Mr Bennett ? ) with infectious glee and how many other movies have you seen Ray Winstone get into a shoot out while wearing a Dalek T-shirt ?