''44 Inch Chest'' is a 2009 British

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in C ...

comedy-drama film Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

directed by

Malcolm Venville Malcolm Frank Venville"Malcolm Frank Venville." ''People of Today''. Debrett's Ltd., 2009. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 19 July 2011. is a British photographer and film director. Life and career Born in Birmingham, Venville was a hearing chil ...

in his directorial debut. The film stars

Ray Winstone Raymond Andrew Winstone (; born 19 February 1957) is an English television, stage and film actor with a career spanning five decades. Having worked with many prominent directors, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, Winstone is perha ...

Ian McShane Ian David McShane (born 29 September 1942) is an English actor, producer and director. He is known for his television performances, particularly as the title role in the BBC series ''Lovejoy'' (1986–1994), Al Swearengen in '' Deadwood'' (20 ...

John Hurt Sir John Vincent Hurt (22 January 1940 – 25 January 2017) was an English actor whose career spanned over five decades. Hurt was regarded as one of Britain's finest actors. Director David Lynch described him as "simply the greatest actor in t ...

, Tom Wilkinson,

Stephen Dillane Stephen John Dillane (; born 27 March 1957) is a British actor. He is best known for his roles as Leonard Woolf in the 2002 film '' The Hours'', Stannis Baratheon in ''Game of Thrones'', and Thomas Jefferson in the 2008 HBO miniseries ''John Ad ...

and

Joanne Whalley Joanne Whalley (born 25 August 1961) is an English actress who began her career in 1974. She has appeared primarily on television, but also in nearly 30 feature films, including '' Dance with a Stranger'' (1985), ''Willow'' (1988), ''Scandal'' ( ...

. The film was released on 19 October 2009. It was originally written for the stage in 1996 by

Louis Mellis Louis Mellis is a Scottish actor and screenwriter. Along with David Scinto, he wrote the screenplay for the films ''Sexy Beast'' (2000) and '' 44 Inch Chest'' (2009). In 2010, Mellis signed on to write ''The Princess' Gangster'', based on the " ...

and David Scinto, who went on to write '' Sexy Beast'' before the script was adapted for film in 2009. The film was produced by Richard Brown and

Steve Golin Steven Aaron Golin (March 6, 1955 – April 21, 2019) was an American film and television producer and the founder and CEO of Anonymous Content LLP, a multimedia development, production and talent management company and co-founder and CEO of Pr ...

(''

Babel Babel is a name used in the Hebrew Bible for the city of Babylon and may refer to: Arts and media Written works Books * ''Babel'' (book), by Patti Smith * ''Babel'' (2012 manga), by Narumi Shigematsu * ''Babel'' (2017 manga), by Yūgo Ishikaw ...

'', ''

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ''Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'' (also simply known as ''Eternal Sunshine'') is a 2004 American romantic science fiction drama film written by Charlie Kaufman, directed by Michel Gondry, and starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. Pi ...

''), and featured cinematography by

Daniel Landin Daniel Landin BSC, is a British cinematographer. Landin started working with Super 8 and VHS video in 1978, collaborating with the industrial music group Throbbing Gristle, documenting live performances and art events. In 1979, he formed the ex ...

. The score is a collaboration between

Angelo Badalamenti Angelo Daniel Badalamenti (March 22, 1937 – December 11, 2022) was an American composer, best known for his work scoring films for director David Lynch, notably '' Blue Velvet'', the ''Twin Peaks'' saga (1990–1992, 2017), '' The Straight S ...

and

Massive Attack Massive Attack are an English trip hop collective formed in 1988 in Bristol by Robert "3D" Del Naja, Adrian "Tricky" Thaws, Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall. The debut Massive Attack album '' Blue Lines'' was releas ...

Plot

Colin Diamond is a successful car salesman who, after discovering his wife Liz is having an affair, has an emotional breakdown. His friends convince him to kidnap his wife's lover and then encourage him to torture and kill him. Diamond's partners in crime are suave homosexual gambler Meredith, crotchety and bigoted Old Man Peanut, the down to earth Archie and the combustible Mal, who by turns encourage Colin's lust for revenge and sympathise with his situation, and conspire to emotionally and mentally torture Liz's new boyfriend, Loverboy, a "Frog" waiter, first by locking him in a cupboard and threatening him, and tying him up and subjecting him to humiliating verbal and physical assault. Parts of the story occur in flashback, with Colin discovering Liz's infidelity and the after effects of it, which then affect the present, in which he tries to come to terms with the shame and torment that this brings to him. Parts of the story also appear to happen inside Colin's mind, with him trying to reconcile with himself, using his friends as representations of his own turmoil, and his resolving of the situation.

Cast

as Colin Diamond *

as Meredith *

as Old Man Peanut * Tom Wilkinson as Archie *

as Mal *

as Liz Diamond *

Melvil Poupaud Melvil Poupaud (born 26 January 1973) is a French actor, author and filmmaker. Career Poupaud's first appearance was, as a child, in Raúl Ruiz's 1983 film '' City of Pirates''. He met Ruiz through his mother, Chantal Poupaud, who was a well-kn ...

as Loverboy *

Steven Berkoff Steven Berkoff (born Leslie Steven Berks; 3 August 1937) is an English actor, author, playwright, theatre practitioner and theatre director. As a theatre maker he is recognised for staging work with a heightened performance style eponymously ...

as Tippi Gordon *

Edna Doré Edna Lillian Doré (née Gorring; 31 May 1921 – 11 April 2014) was a British actress. She was known for her bit-part roles in sitcoms and for playing the character of Mo Butcher in '' EastEnders'' from 1988 to 1990. Career Doré began her c ...

as Archie’s Mother *

Andy de la Tour Andy de la Tour (born 1948) is an English actor and screenwriter. In films he appeared in '' Plenty'', ''Notting Hill'', the Roman Polanski's ''Oliver Twist'', ''44 Inch Chest'', and '' The Confessions'', and in television '' The Young Ones'', ...

as Biggy Walpole * Derek Lea as Bumface * Ramon Christian as Boy on Sofa

Production

''44 Inch Chest'' is set and filmed in

Borehamwood Borehamwood (, historically also Boreham Wood) is a town in southern Hertfordshire, England, from Charing Cross. Borehamwood has a population of 31,074, and is within the London commuter belt. The town's film and TV studios are commonly know ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For gov ...

, and

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

on 26 May and 13 July 2008.

Reception

''44 Inch Chest'' has received mixed reviews. Review aggregate

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

reports that 41% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 81 reviews, with an average score of 5.2/10. The critics consensus reads, "An actor's movie with a strong cast, ''44 Inch Chest'' can't quite redeem its static plotting and tonal shifts." ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' gave the film 3/5 stars, calling the film "A plum actors' piece which both gains and loses points by soberly stalling its own plot." Peter Bradshaw of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' was less enthusiastic, giving the film 2/5 saying "The film talks the talk – in fact, it talks and talks and talks the talk. But the walk isn't happening."

Home media

On 10 May 2010, the DVD was released in Region 2 in the United Kingdom; it was distributed by

Momentum Pictures Momentum Pictures is a film distributor and a subsidiary of Entertainment One, itself part of Hasbro. Prior to 2013, it was a brand of Canadian distributor Alliance Films used for its releases in the United Kingdom, and was one of the leading in ...

Image Entertainment RLJ Entertainment (formerly Image Entertainment) is an American film production company and home video distributor, distributing film and television productions in North America, with approximately 3,200 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 34 ...

purchased American distribution rights months before the film's festival premiere; they released the Region 1 DVD on April 20, 2010.

Adaptations

From 12–24 August 2019, ''44 Inch Chest'' will be performed on stage for the first time as part of the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

, at the Perth Theatre (aka theSpace on North Bridge). The play, an abridged edit of the original 1996 script, will be produced by Out of Bounds Theatre.

References

External links

* * * *
44 Inch Chest
at

metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

*
BBC Film Network – Malcolm Venville interview
{{San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Performance by an Ensemble 2009 films 2000s crime drama films Anonymous Content films British crime drama films Films shot at Elstree Film Studios Films about kidnapping in the United Kingdom Films set in London Films produced by Steve Golin 2009 directorial debut films 2000s English-language films Films directed by Malcolm Venville 2000s British films