What happens when you combine a rather large diamond, a compulsive gambler, a mad Russian, a Jewish diamond dealer from New York, a pair of bare-knuckle boxing promoters, a mobster who feeds people to pigs, a pair of bumbling pawnshop owners, an Irish gypsy and a dog that squeaks? A mixture of mayhem, murder and laughs in a movie appropriately titled Snatch.
Writer-director Guy Ritchie is back with the same dark humor that made his first film Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels a success.
Snatch starts out with a simple plot. Diamond thief Franky Four Fingers (Del Toro) is on his way to New York to deliver a newly acquired diamond to boss Avi (Farina). He must first stop off in London to unload some smaller stones to Avi’s cousin, Doug the Head (Mike Reid), who believes that he is Jewish. In the course of selling the smaller stones, Franky meets up with Boris the Blade (Rade Sherbedgia). Then the plot becomes even more interesting. Boris convinces Franky to place a bet for him on a bare- knuckle boxing match. Boris secretly wants the diamond for himself.
Boris then visits the friendly neighborhood pawn shop owners Vinny (Robbie Gee) and Sol (Lennie James). There, he talks them into robbing the bookie for the boxing match and stealing the suitcase with the diamond.
Meanwhile, unlicensed boxing promoters Turkish (Statham) and Tommy (Stephen Graham) run into trouble when their prize fighter gets knocked out of commission by a mumbling Irish gypsy Mickey (Pitt). Now they must find a new fighter, or evil villain Brick Top (Alan Ford) will feed them to his pigs. Turkish and Tommy decide to use Mickey in the match.
There’s more: Now everyone’s problems start to intersect. The night of the big boxing match arrives. Vinny and Sol, along with oversize getaway driver Tyrone (Ade) and a dog that squeaks after swallowing a toy, are set to rob the match and steal the diamond. The only problem is that Tyrone backs into the truck holding Franky and now Franky can’t get out.
Meanwhile, Mickey refuses to go down in the fourth round as Brick Top ordered, and now the three are in trouble. Eventually, Franky gets out of the truck only to be knocked out by Tyrone. Vinny and Sol almost get killed trying to rob the bookies, who happen to have no money. Boris meets up with the pair of pawnshop owners, kills Franky and takes the diamond. The death of Franky is the first in a long, grisly line. The death of Franky brings Avi to London to retrieve the diamond.
Then, Brick Top, upset with the loss of the match and the jokers who tried to rob him goes after Vinny and Sol. When Brick Top confronts them, the duo promises to get the diamond for him if he lets them live. Turkish and Tommy must convince Mickey to go down in the next match, or they will all be pig fodder. Only time will tell who’ll possess the diamond and make it out alive. The perfect line from the movie that summarizes the film’s quirky characters is: “in the words of the Virgin Mary, come again.”
Ritchie does a wonderful job taking different elements and blending them into one unexpected plot after another. Not since Quentin Tarentino’s Pulp Fiction has there been a movie that successfully interweaves so many different individual stories. Snatch not only does it successfully, but makes it entertaining at the same time. The mixture of different characters, all original with the same going for the script proves that the art of filmmaking is not lost.
One of the best aspects of the film is the cast. Snatch stars several virtually unknown actors in the United States, except for Pitt, Farina and Del Toro. Ade, who plays the portly Tyrone actually started out as a security guard on the set until spotted by Ritchie. The same goes for Graham, James and Gee.
For the first time in a long time, Pitt is actually enjoyable, even though you cannot understand a single word he speaks. Del Toro’s acting career is rising to the heights of stardom not only with the role in Snatch, but also in Traffic and The Pledge. Farina and Statham do an excellent job in the roles of Avi and Turkish, respectively.
If you have not seen Snatch, then you are missing a world of fun. Snatch delivers a whole new spin on the typical gangster tale. A
