Eye For Film >> Movies >> Love, Honour And Obey (2000) Film Review
Love, Honour And Obey
Reviewed by: Angus Wolfe Murray
The friends who produced last year's worst movie (Final Cut) have ganged up together again. There are still penis jokes and violence unlimited and Ray Winstone shouting his mouth off, but this time they have a bit of a plot and a couple of new boys on the team, Jonny Lee Miller and Rhys Ifans.
The film is presented as an everyday story of Cockney gangsters, which means it is funnier than New York Mafia and less obsessed with contract killings. The North London crowd under Winstone have rules of engagement. They don't enter another gaff's turf and knock off his powder. Certainly not with a shooter. There are rules.
The South London crew under Sean Pertwee have a working relationship with Winstone. As long as both sides play fair. The loose cannons are Miller and Ifans.
Jude Law is Winstone's nephew, part of the family. As Miller's childhood friend, he brings him into the gang, but Miller is impatient. He thinks Ray is more interested in his pending marriage to soap star, Sadie Frost, than doing the business. Ifans, who works for Pertwee, hates Miller and taunts him whenever they meet.
Dominic Anciano and Ray Burdis, direct with more imagination, write with more wit and perform with more humour than last time.
No one really acts, except Ifans, who can't help being funny, even when he's mad with rage. Given time, and a few more movies, it might be possible to like these people.
Reviewed on: 19 Jan 2001