Snatch review

Snatch is a 2000 Crime comedy film written and directed by Guy Ritchie. The film is set in London and contains two intertwined plots: one following the search for a stolen diamond and the other with a promoter of illegal fights, Turkish (Jason Statham). Among the search for the stolen diamond are Avi (Dennis Farina), an American "businessman;" Brick Top (Alan Ford), the swine aficionado; and incompetent pawn-shop operators Vinny (Robbie Gee), Sol (Lennie James) and Tyrone (Ade).

The film was very ‘tongue and cheek’ and had many moments of amusement. I particularly enjoyed the scenes with Brad Pitt’s character Mickey because they put emphasise of his Irish accent so much so that they made out even the characters had no idea what he was saying, and from watching it, it sounds like even Pitt didn’t understand what he was talking about. By putting the characters in the same position as you it really involves the audience with the film making you feel the same emotions and expressions. For me I payed more attention to the comedy side of this double genre film, then the crime because although the crime was the genre that circulated throughout, the comedic parts would catch you by surprise and therefore grabbed my focus.

Snatch confirms writer/director Guy Ritchie as a filmmaker with a strong visual eye, an ability to create memorable characters and write often funny dialogue. The films editing in particular courtesy of Jon Harris has helped crate and energetic film. Sound effects are crisp and startles the viewer in the right places, and a bigger budget gives way to a memorable fight scene, which is loaded but never overwhelmed with visual effects. This film reminded me of Tarantino’s work with the film based round criminals and therefore allowing the narrative to feature lots of bloodthirsty violence.

Snatch, while somewhat hard to follow, represents a fascinating study in character interaction and complex plot development, it's really the characters more than the plot that make it interesting. Writer/director Ritchie created a multi-faceted crime story deeply immersed with this multitude of tough-guy types. Although it is often violent, there is an undercurrent of humour permeating every scene, with plenty of good lines in the dialogue, and the violence itself is hardly ever shown on screen. Pitt, Farina, Ford, and the rest of the practically all-male cast a quit themselves well, making an interesting collage of personalities. In the spokes-and-wheel metaphor, it could be said that the huge diamond is the equilibrium, since it seems to touch practically every character in some way at some time, and all their experiences radiate outwards from this.

Overall I would recommend this film and it was incredibly funny. Ritchie managed to portray a light hearted tone as well as quite a serious one when need be; particularly scenes that involved the dangerous Brick Top. It followed a range of characters so could show all their personalities, some I preferred over others but I still had an opinion on all characters.