RocknRolla

RocknRolla (2008) ties together several separate stories around a property fraud in London. Lenny Cole is an old fashioned London crime boss making money through council permissions. A Russian billionaire arrives to invest in the city and Lenny brokers it. Meanwhile two small time thieves rob the wrong person and a painting the Russian considers lucky goes missing. The structure is Ritchie's usual: groups who do not know each other, three or four lines chasing the same money, and a middle section where they collide. The real subject is a changing London. The old criminal order is shrinking in the face of foreign capital and Lenny has not noticed. The cast grew afterwards: Tom Hardy, Idris Elba, Gerard Butler, Mark Strong, Tom Wilkinson. Hardy and Elba were not yet known at the time. Using Mark Strong as the narrator is the best thing in it; he lives the events from inside and tells them from outside. One chase is deliberately staged as incompetent: two men running, both of them getting tired. A sequel was announced over the credits. It was never made. Ritchie moved on to Sherlock Holmes and did not return to crime films for a long time. It runs 114 minutes. Good for: British crime comedy, Ritchie, and large ensembles. Less good for: the plot branches too much, there are a lot of characters, and there is violence.