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

Infobox Film
name = I'll Sleep When I'm Dead


image_size =
caption = "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" film poster
director = Mike Hodges
producer = Michael Corrente
Mike E.Kaplan
writer = Trevor Preston
narrator =
starring = Clive Owen
Jonathan Rhys-Meyers
Malcolm McDowell
music = Simon Fisher-Turner
cinematography = Michael Garfath
editing = Paul Carlin
distributor = Paramount Classics
released = June 16, 2004
runtime =
country = flagicon|UK UK
language = English
budget =
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website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0319531

"I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" is a 2004 British crime film directed by Mike Hodges, from a screenplay by Trevor Preston. The film bears many striking similarities to Hodges' directorial debut, the classic 1971 crime drama "Get Carter". Both films feature men who return to their former hometowns to investigate the death of a brother who has died under mysterious circumstances.

Plot

Academy Award nominee Clive Owen stars as Will Graham, a former London crime boss who has left his former life to live as a recluse in the forest. Haunted by the blood of those he has murdered, Will wishes never to return. But when his brother (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) commits suicide, following a sexual assault at the hands of a volatile car dealer (Malcolm McDowell), Will returns to London to discover the cause of his brother's death and administer justice to those responsible. There he must also face old enemies and a former love, Helen (Charlotte Rampling).

Reception

The film received very mixed reviews. On the website RottenTomatoes.com it sports a 44% approval rating, certifying it as "rotten". One of the common complaints among its critics is that they felt it moved much too slowly. Despite its detractors, however, Hodges' movie managed to find some formidable defenders. Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half out of four stars, saying, "...there is a tangible pleasure in following enigmatic characters through the shadows of their lives; deprived for a time of plot, given characters who are not clearly labeled and assigned moral categories, we're allowed to make judgments based on their manner and speech." Writing for the New York Observer, Andrew Sarris wrote, "Does the film work? All I know is that it stays in my mind for its ambitiously autumnal essence, but it may not be everyone's cup of tea." According to Owen Gleiberman, "Hodges...still knows how to unspool a mystery with a hypnotic pace of sadistic intrigue." Slant Magazine's Nick Schager awarded the film a full four stars.

External links

*imdb title|id=0319531
* [http://noiroftheweek.blogspot.com/2007/07/british-neo-noir-part-3-ill-sleep-when.html Review] by film noir author Andrew Spicer