Article: Heist, Heist, Baby - Face (1997)

 Ray used to stand for something. Throughout the runtime of Face, he is called a commie, a left winger and a socialist. In the film's numerous flashbacks, Ray is on the front lines of protests, demonstrating for workers' rights with his mother. His girlfriend, Connie (Lena Headey) who he met during protests, looks after child refugees in a London boarding house. Ray’s beliefs are somewhat vague in their entirety, however. He leans left politically. At least he used to incline that way. One of the more potent themes in Face is how capitalism stamps over idealism. Ray may have held principles in the past, but those days are in the rear-view mirror of his youth. Ray is now an armed robber, more focused on money for himself than the virtues of his past. Even though he would have earned a better crust on the straight and narrow than what he gets now. The problem is capitalism has an interesting way of skewering a person’s view.

Face was released in 1997, a year before the dick-swinging mockney gangsters of Guy Richie infiltrated cinema. Don’t get me wrong. There’s plenty of room for Richie’s flashy aesthetic, with his early work showing a sense of populist cinema I would mind seeing more from British filmmaking nowadays. But Antonia Bird’s shadowy crime feature of a heist turned sour is equally compelling although in a different way. Face’s conflicted criminals with compromised souls are very different from shallow “Cool Britannia” energy that radiates from Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Narratively Face is no different from many heist movies before or after it. A motley crew of criminals headed by the morally conflicted Ray (Robert Carlyle) fall into trouble when a spate of incidents befouls them after the successful undertaking of their latest heist. Tension is already high since the crew doesn't manage to swipe the minimum amount they aimed for. Now, someone has taken the money from them. And murmurs of a rat in the group grow steadily larger. Ray leads the charge to discover what happened and how they can reclaim their money. The plot of Face doesn’t sound too different from the dozens of post-modern, Tarantino-spliced movies that littered the 90s. But Antonia Bird’s feature (written by Ronan Bennett of Top Boy fame), while stylish, is draped in a political cynicism that someone like me is crying for to come back.

When it feels like societal change and community building is a task worthy of Sisyphus, how willing are you to give up those beliefs and take the bag? This question resides at the heart of Face, which is unflinching in that the 80s ideals of the left have failed, and now, in the 90s, the only thing you can do is take the money and run. Perhaps the most revealing moment comes late on in the film when a character bluntly states that there is no public service, only money and the people who can obtain it. It’s a marked moment in the film that hits home even more after 14 years of modern conservatism. The film feels even more barbed as it came out only a few months after Tony Blair became Prime Minster with New Labour taking over Britain. Then there’s an element of discombobulation remembering pictures of Oasis’ Noel Gallagher wining and dining with Blair at the beginning of his tenure.

Meanwhile, Blur’s Damon Albarn appears as a young member of Ray’s gang. As if Oasis and Blur didn't just draw battle lines with Roll with It and Country House. Albarn’s appearance holds an element of stunt casting, he’s not in the film for long. But it is telling to see him in this film as his debut, with the outer knowledge of his future activism. Elsewhere, Oasis drew controversy with their dynamic pricing in their comeback tour…

Antonia Bird captures the strong sense of alienation felt by people frustrated by years of doing what they felt was morally sound. She fills the background with billboards which yell Enough is enough and Graffiti that argues “Vote Apathy”.  A prang of jealousy can be felt when Ray meets up with his right-hand man Dave (Ray Winstone) before preparing to do the job. Winston’s character has benefited well from criminality and his London suburb home is evidence of that. If Ray was even less married to his principles, would he be found here, far away from the protests and politics? This is the dopamine bliss money provides: Ignorance from a world that needs saving. The tensely shot heist stands out as it has Ray look at the honest workers he’s stealing from with Bird cross-cutting them against the faces of protesters and the needy he stood with years before. Solidifying him as a man of certain standings who has lost his way. If Ray was less married to his politics, would he be here?

Robert Carlyle shows his worth here. Almost more than he does in his more noted performances. Ray is a more complicated character than the likes of Trainspotting’s Bigbie. While you wouldn’t be surprised that both characters could have the same velocity, there’s a simmering intensity to Ray, that suggests a more profound sense of danger.  This is blended with Ray’s values. While a guy like Bigbie shows clear warning signs, it’s harder to see such things in Ray. What’s fascinating is watching Carlye have Ray constantly wrestling with his conscience in almost every scene. Carlyle's turn reminds us of how potent the actor was in the 90s and early 00s. Ray Winstone is also strong here. His role of David is a lot more shaded than so many of his “geezer” characters. Winstone’s performance feels like a stepping stone towards his iconic performance in Jonathan Glazer’s Sexy Beast (2000) only 3 years later.

Films such as Face and Sexy Beast almost feel like anomalies by the early 00s. Face has one foot in the bygone eras of decades past. Feeling much more like The Long Good Friday (1980) than anything that came after it. By the next year, the game had changed. With Guy Richie’s cheeky chappies ushering in something more over the top and cartoonish than before. It’s not surprising that Bird’s film loses a bit of its potency in the third act of the film when the film becomes more conventional, and action-packed. Although it’s worth noting how well-staged the shootouts are. Managing to pack a real punch as the film winds towards a path well-travelled. The late Antonia Bird had this to say about her movie:

“It’s set in the East End where I’ve lived for the past 20 years and it’s about the people I know and care about... You could have a drink with a lot of guys I know, and you’d never guess that they were involved in crime... In Face, I wasn’t trying to show them in a good light, but I was trying to say these are real people with real inner lives. They have the same emotional responses and needs as you or I because that is truer to what I know.”

With this said it’s bittersweet that the film’s narrative bows itself to movie convention in the finale. This doesn’t mean Face loses relevancy. If anything, the dark cynicism that ebbs throughout the film only feels more precedent as each year passes. The desire of Face to be a confident genre piece that also happens about something has only strengthened the film as time goes on. Mostly because it feels like we’re seeing less of this sort of thing. Films stumbling at the final hurdle is absolutely fine if it means we could get more of this ambitious, well-crafted fare back. It’s not like the material isn’t there. We just need folk to pick up the mantle.