''London'' is a 2005 American

romantic drama film Romance films involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion (emotion), passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their ...

written and directed by Hunter Richards. It stars Chris Evans,

Jason Statham Jason Statham ( ; born 26 July 1967) is an English actor. He is known for portraying tough, gritty, or violent characters in various action thriller films, and has been credited for leading the resurgence of action films during the 2000s and 2 ...

Jessica Biel Jessica Claire Timberlake (née Biel ; born March 3, 1982) is an American actress. Biel began her career as a vocalist appearing in musical productions until she was cast as Mary Camden in the family drama series '' 7th Heaven'' (1996–2007 ...

Joy Bryant Joy Bryant (born October 18, 1974) is an American actress, businesswoman and fashion model. She has appeared in numerous films and television since beginning her acting career in 2001. She has received two NAACP Image Award nominations, and one Sc ...

Kelli Garner Kelli Brianne Garner (born April 11, 1984) is an American actress who has appeared in a variety of independent and mainstream films, television, and theater. A native of Southern California, Garner made her feature film debut at age 17 in Larr ...

, and

Isla Fisher Isla Lang Fisher (; born 3 February 1976) is an Australian actress. Born in Oman to Scottish parents with whom she moved to Australia during her childhood, she began appearing in television commercials and came to prominence for her portrayal o ...

Plot

Syd ( Chris Evans) receives a phone call from a friend informing him that his ex-girlfriend London (

) is having a going-away party before she moves to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

with her new boyfriend in a few days. Syd, who has been deeply depressed since London dumped him, flies into a rage upon hearing the news, and wrecks his apartment. He decides to go to the party uninvited, bringing along Bateman (

), a banker who delivers

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

to Syd as a favor to their mutual dealer. After arriving at the party at the condominium belonging to the parents of club girl Rebecca (

), Bateman and Syd install themselves in the bathroom, where they snort line after line of cocaine, guzzle

tequila Tequila (; ) is a liquor, distilled beverage made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila, Jalisco, Tequila northwest of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Guadalajara, and in the Jaliscan Highlands (''Los Altos (Jal ...

and discuss love, sex, God, women and pain. Over the course of the night and a massive pile of blow, Bateman tells Syd to get on with his life. The private party-within-a-party is soon joined by Maya (

) and Mallory (

), who feign sympathy for Syd to grab some free cocaine. When Syd learns that London has arrived, Bateman challenges him to go out and talk to her. After a heated confrontation in the middle of the party, Syd and London decide to leave to talk somewhere more private. As they are leaving, a fight ensues in which Syd and Bateman fight the other male guests, barely making it out of the party. London and Syd make up in Syd's car, and later they have sex in London's apartment. In the last scene, at the airport, Syd tells London he loves her. Although this impresses London, she still leaves him.

Cast

as London * Chris Evans as Syd *

as Bateman *

as Mallory *

as Maya *

as Rebecca *

Dane Cook Dane Jeffrey Cook (born March 18, 1972) is an American stand-up comedian and film actor. He is known for his use of observational comedy, observational, often blue comedy, vulgar, and sometimes black comedy, dark comedy. He released six comedy ...

as George *

Louis C.K. Louis Alfred Székely (; born September 12, 1967), known professionally as Louis C.K. (), is an American stand-up comedian, actor and filmmaker. C.K. has won three Peabody Awards, three Grammy Awards, six Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Screen Act ...

as Therapist *

Casey LaBow Casey LaBow (b. Samantha Casey Labow, Aug. 14, 1986, New York City) is an People of the United States, American film producer and actress known for her role as The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2#Cast, Kate Denali in ''The Twilight Saga ...

as Dominatrix *

Kat Dennings Katherine Victoria Litwack (born June 13, 1986), known professionally as Kat Dennings, is an American actress. She is known for her starring roles as Max Black in the CBS sitcom ''2 Broke Girls'' (2011–2017) and as Darcy Lewis in the Marvel ...

as Lilly *

Lina Esco Lina Esco (born May 14, 1985) is an American actress, producer, director and activist. She gained recognition in 2007 for portraying Jimmy Smits' character's daughter in the CBS television drama ''Cane''. Esco has also performed in films, includ ...

as Kelly *

Paula Patton Paula Maxine Patton (born December 5, 1975) is an American actress and producer. Patton made her feature film debut in the 2005 comedy '' Hitch'', and has had starring roles in the films ''Déjà Vu'' (2006), '' Precious'' (2009), '' Jumping th ...

as Alex * Antonio Muñoz as Killer in a Dream

Music

American

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...

group

The Crystal Method The Crystal Method is an American electronic music act formed in Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas, Nevada, by Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland in 1993. They were pioneers of the big beat genre and their music has appeared in numerous TV shows, films, v ...

performed the score for the film. The song "Roboslut" appears in the North American PlayStation 2 release of ''

Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova , released in Europe as ''Dancing Stage SuperNova'' is an arcade and PlayStation 2 game in the ''Dance Dance Revolution'' (''DDR'') series of music video games. It was produced by Konami and released through Betson Enterprises. The game was rele ...

'', but is retitled "Robogirl" due to censorship. ; Track listing All songs written and performed by

except where noted. # "London" # "Restless" by

Evil Nine Evil Nine are an English electronic music duo comprising members Tom Beaufoy and Pat Pardy. Their musical style is primarily classified as breakbeat, although it additionally encompasses other influences. Biography The duo first came togeth ...

featuring Toastie Taylor # "Smoked" (Vocals by Troy Bonnes) # "Fire to Me" (vs. Hyper) # "Roboslut" # "Defective" # "Vice" # "Crime" by Troy Bonnes # "C'mon Children" by

The Out Crowd The Out Crowd was a U.S. indie rock band featuring bass guitarist Matt Hollywood, a former member of The Brian Jonestown Massacre. He formed the group in late 2001 in Portland, Oregon with drummer Stuart Valentine, guitarist Elliott Barnes, bass ...

# "Onesixteen" # "Sucker Punch" by

Connie Price and the Keystones Connie Price and the Keystones is a project helmed by guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Dan Ubick from Los Angeles, California, combining influences of funk, hip-hop, psych and soul. Besides Ubick, it had a revolving membership while they perfor ...

# "Glass Breaker" (Vocals by

Charlotte Martin Charlotte Ann Martin (born October 31, 1976) is an American singer-songwriter and musician who performs predominantly on the piano. She has published several studio albums, two of which have received mainstream commercial releases: 2004's '' On ...

) # "I Luv U" # "Nothing Like You and I" by

The Perishers ''The Perishers'' was a long-running British comic strip about a group of neighbourhood children and a dog. It was printed in the ''Daily Mirror'' as a daily strip and first appeared on 19 October 1959. For most of its life it was written by Mau ...

Critical reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, 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 ...

, the film has a 14% approval rating, based on 36 reviews, with an average rating of 3.7 out of 10. The website's consensus reads, "Hampered by pretension and undermined by unlikable characters, ''London'' proves that the novelty of seeing actors play against type isn't enough to rescue a deeply flawed film." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, it has a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 24 out of 100, based on reviews from 15 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

'' gave the film one out of four stars, writing, "Chris Evans and Jason Statham have verbal facility and energy, which enables them to propel this dreck from one end of 92 minutes to the other, and the women in the movie are all perfectly adequate at playing bimbo cokeheads. I have seen all of these actors on better days in better movies, and I may have a novena said for them." Laura Kern of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' called it "a misfired attempt at provocation and the exploration of philosophical thought, London is little more than an immature display of male bonding on speed."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:London (2005 film) 2005 films 2005 independent films 2005 romantic drama films American independent films American romantic drama films Destination Films films Films about cocaine Films set in New York City Films shot in New York City 2005 directorial debut films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films English-language independent films English-language romantic drama films