Macho gets highly manic in "44 Inch Chest," not a cinematic biography of Jayne Mansfield or Anna Nicole Smith but a tale of English would-be tough guys trying to make certain that a pal gets nasty revenge against the younger man who seduced his wife, not only into bed, but also out of their marriage.
Malcolm Venville's film, from a screenplay by Louis Mellis and David Scinto (who also wrote the powerful "Sexy Beast"), is strong stuff, more in terms of violent language and fierce threats than actual mayhem, although there's a little of that. But it's a first-rate, powerful story with a team of excellent actors plus the exceptional Joanne Whalley as the wandering wife. Her husband, Colin, is played by Ray Winstone, showing a wide range of testosterone-laced emotions. He is devastated by her calm report that she has found someone else, screams for bloody revenge, weeps in frustration, tries to figure out which partner in the infidelity deserves the most pain, then comes to a halt, whipsawed by so many internal conflicts he cannot decide what to do first.
The great John Hurt is Old Man Peanut, the loudest of the avenging non-angels, the most vulgar in his language, the first to back away when invited to put his money where his mouth is. Ian McShane is the black-suited, suave Meredith, tossing up hypothetical situations and alternatives like a tennis player on service and Tom Wilkinson, such a marvelous actor, is Archie, who still lives with Mum. Stephen Dillane is Mal, who would have been putting moves on Whalley were it not for the presence of his friend, Colin, and perhaps a little fear of its outcome.
And Melvil Poupaud is the seducer, known only as Loverboy, used as a derogatory description. A waiter in a French restaurant, he spends most of his screen time tied to a chair yet does quite a bit of acting, all of it good.
Venville tends to let his actors sit in barely furnished rooms in bare buildings, but he takes us on journeys into fantasy and dreams, in moments of imagination for the future and of memories of the past, with a conclusion that seems very strange, but one soon realizes that the ending is perfect for the story, and the actors handle it in a proper manner.
I could not find an explanation for the title, but perhaps Venville, or the authors, think it's appropriate advertising to bring a few extra people–mostly men–into the theater.
Opens today at the Tivoli.
-Joe