Snatch of Conversation

After a good experience with Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, I decided to give a later Guy Ritchie film, Snatch, a try. It left me feeling that oddly, Guy Ritchie might be like Cirque du Soleil -- whichever production you see first catches you unprepared for the experience, and even if you like other ones, you won't think as highly of them as the first.

Actually, my take on Snatch was not even that kind. I thought Snatch was a clunky knock-off of LS&2SB, not in the same league. But boy, they certainly were cut from the same cloth. Again, the movie is a jumbled collection of characters, each in their own tiny story. As the film progresses, the stories slowly merge until the climax brings everything together for an over-the-top finish.

LS&2SB really made me feel that that final whole was indeed greater than the sum of the parts. In Snatch, I didn't think it really gelled well at the end. Things sort of came together, but only for the briefest of moments, not for any sustained interplay. It just didn't end in the fun and reckless way of Guy Ritchie's earlier film.

Nor were the parts as entertaining. There's another group of bumbling criminals. There's a pair of "rowdy boys" who need to get a lot of cash together quickly, just like the group in the earlier film. (One's even played by Jason Statham, just like before.) There's the big "boss" to which the separate parties must answer. This second verse is the same as the first, and not nearly as clever.

One element that does stand out, though, is Brad Pitt's performance as a "pikey" with a natural talent for fighting and an incomprehensible accent. His material is by far the funniest in the movie, and he brings still more to it with his performance.

It's not that the movie was bad. I don't think it would be possible to see this and LS&2SB, like one, and hate the other. But everything that's done here is done better in the earlier film. So neither do I feel I can recommend Snatch when a film so similar, but better made, is out there. I rate this movie a C+.