Snatch

A crime comedy set in London. A diamond is stolen. After a robbery in Antwerp the stone should go to New York and ends up in London. Another line runs at the same time. Turkish and his friend put on boxing matches and go to buy a caravan from a group living in one. They meet a man there. Nobody understands Mickey when he speaks and nobody stays upright when he fights. From there the film is made of lines colliding. A casino boss, two incompetent robbers, a Russian, three armed men, a dog and a gangster who keeps pigs. What the narrative is interested in is not crime but coincidence: nobody's plan survives and each section connects to the next through a misunderstanding. The editing and telling are fast. Freeze frames, rewinds and a narrator constantly at work. Mickey's incomprehensible speech came out of a necessity. The actor could not manage a London accent and proposed the solution himself, and the character was written that way. It comes from the same vein as the director's previous film and shares names in the cast. It did well at the British box office and reinforced the wave of British crime comedy of the period. Jason Statham, Brad Pitt, Alan Ford, Vinnie Jones, Benicio del Toro and Stephen Graham are in the cast. Guy Ritchie wrote and directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes fast-cut, foul-mouthed crime comedy. Who it is not for: anyone looking for character depth; the narrative moves past a lot of people quickly and uses violence as a joke.