Ex-criminal Gary "Gal" Dove is happily retired in Spain with his beloved wife DeeDee, best friend Aitch and Aitch's wife Jackie. A boulder falls from a hill, nearly hits him, and lands in his swimming pool, damaging its double-heart insignia. After an unsuccessful rabbit hunt with Aitch and Enrique, a Spanish boy who helps him around the house, Gal has a dream of a demonic, anthropomorphic rabbit pointing a gun at him. An old criminal associate, the feared sociopath Don Logan, arrives at Gal's villa, intent on enlisting Gal for a bank robbery in London. Crime lord Teddy Bass learned about the vault from Harry, the bank's chairman, whom he met at an orgy. Gal politely declines, claiming he is no longer “match fit” but Don grows increasingly aggressive and violent. After Gal suggests Don's real reason for visiting is his infatuation with Jackie, with whom he had a brief affair, Don grows furious and demands to be taken to the airport. On the plane, Don refuses to extinguish his cigarette prior to take-off, is aggressive to staff and other passengers, and is ejected. Don returns to the villa screaming obscenities and attacks Gal with a bottle. Enrique threatens him with a gun, but Don disarms him. DeeDee aims Gal’s shotgun at Don, but in the next scene Gal appears in a rainy London at the hotel where he was told to stay by Don, suggesting he has had no alternative but to accept the job. Teddy asks Gal where Don is. Gal claims Don called him from Heathrow Airport and continues to feign ignorance and hide his panic as Teddy asks more questions. During the heist, Teddy's crew use diving gear to drill into Harry's vault from a pool in a neighbouring bath house. As Gal works, Don’s fate is revealed – DeeDee shot Don in the stomach with the shotgun and then she, Jackie and Gal beat him. When a bloodied Don taunts Aitch that he had sex with Jackie, Aitch crushes his head with a barbeque set. The pool water floods the vault and shorts its security system. As the crew empties the vault's safe deposit boxes, Gal secretly pockets a pair of ruby earrings encrusted with diamonds. After the job, Teddy insists on driving Gal to the airport. He stops at Harry's home, where he kills Harry and demands Gal tell him where Don is. Gal finally responds that he is "not into this any more", effectively admitting he did not want to do the job and has killed Don. Teddy tells Gal that he does not care about Don but implies Gal would also be dead if he did. After asking what Don had promised Gal as payment for the job, he gives Gal “a tenner” – not ten percent of the takings, but £10, giving him a twenty-pound-note and demanding change. Teddy drives away, leaving Gal at a bus stop. Gal pulls out the stolen gem encrusted earrings, his hidden reward for the job. Gal returns to his friends and family in Spain, where DeeDee wears the earrings and life has returned to normal. Gal hears Don's voice tell him that he knew Gal would do the job; Gal responds that Don is dead now and can shut up. Under the restored double-heart insignia of the swimming pool, the demonic rabbit kicks open a coffin, revealing Don, who exhales smoke with contempt.
Cast
Ray Winstone as Gary "Gal" Dove, a retired criminal who married DeeDee and moved to Spain to start a new life
Ben Kingsley as Don Logan, a violent sociopath and recruiter for the London underworld
Ian McShane as Teddy Bass, a London crime boss
Amanda Redman as DeeDee Dove, Gal's beloved wife and a former porn star
Julianne White as Jackie, Aitch's wife, who had a fling with Logan
Álvaro Monje as Enrique, a Spanish boy who helps Gal around the house
Production
Producer Jeremy Thomas later remembered his experience making the film:
Reception
, the film has an approval rating of 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 134 reviews with an average rating of 7.21/10. The site's critical consensus states, "Sexy Beast rises above other movies in the British gangster genre due to its performances -- particularly an electrifying one by Ben Kingsley -- and the script's attention to character development." On Metacritic, it has a rating of 79%, indicating "generally favorable reviews". It received praise from writers at the San Francisco Chronicle, Entertainment Weekly, Slate, Rolling Stone and the Los Angeles Times, but was panned by Stephen Hunter of the Washington Post who described some of the film's moments as "Ben Kingsley spraying saliva-lubricated variants of the F-word into the atmosphere like anti-aircraft fire for 10 solid minutes." It was also described as "often enjoyable" but "massively uneven" by Variety.
Original music by English electronic band South and also Spanish composer/saxophonist Roque Baños. Dean Martin's version of "Sway" accompanies the film's end credits. The soundtrack also includes "Peaches" by The Stranglers, "Cuba" by The Gibson Brothers, "G-Spot" by Wayne Marshall, "Daddy Rollin' Stone" by Derek Martin, and Henry Mancini's "Lujon".
