Before “Layer Cake,” Vaughn was only a movie producer. The film was his directorial debut, and that’s the path he’s been on since. After the movie’s success, he even had brief discussions to direct “Casino Royale.” The Bond itch clearly hasn’t left Vaughn, who’s spent the last decade making spy thrillers in the “Kingsman” franchise. (Next to all the superhero and Bond movies, “Layer Cake” and Vaughn’s second film, the live-action fairy tale “Stardust,” stand out as unlike the rest.)
You can’t talk about “Layer Cake” without talking about Guy Ritchie, Vaughn’s former creative partner. He was not officially involved with the film, but it’s clear that Vaughn’s experience producing Ritchie’s films is a key part of how he directed “Layer Cake.”
Vaughn and Ritchie met in 1995 through a mutual friend. Ritchie had already written a script for his eventual debut, gangster flick “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.” Vaughn (who already fancied himself a movie producer) read the script, found it to be “the roughest diamond I’d ever come across,” and worked with Ritchie to get it made. After many hurdles, they eventually succeeded and “Lock, Stock” premiered in 1998. In 2000, they produced/directed “Snatch,” a spiritual sequel to “Lock, Stock.” For Vaughn’s next gangster picture, he sat down in the director’s chair.
“Layer Cake” has the outline of a Ritchie crime movie, but it mostly lacks the puerile humor of them. The grainy texture and dingy lighting of “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and “Snatch” makes them look almost homemade, while “Layer Cake” is sleek and clean; it has the golden sheen of Vaughn’s later blockbusters like “X-Men: First Class.” (Read our interview with Vaughn about his “First Class” experience here.)
Roger Ebert wrote that “Layer Cake” is more successful than Ritchie’s gangster films “because it doesn’t try so hard to be clever and tries harder to be menacing.” Guy Ritchie wants to be Quentin Tarantino, while Matthew Vaughn (when making “Layer Cake” at least) wants to be Martin Scorsese. He throws the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” into the “Layer Cake” soundtrack, and it probably took all his restraint not to include “Sunshine Of Your Love” too.
So while “Layer Cake” is not a revolutionary film, it’s a stylish and confident one; confidence strong enough for James Bond himself.
