Mr. Nice (2011)

Simply A Masterpiece

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

This is a straight-ahead biopic on Howard Marks, who was a famous drug dealer in the U.K., and who I was unfamiliar with. It was very similar in style to "Blow", the biopic of George Jung, a big U.S.A. cocaine dealer from yesteryear played by Johnny Depp. It even included a shot with the aged, incarcerated Marks meeting with his children, just as Jung did at the end of "Blow", when his grown-up daughter showed up.Rhys Ifans plays Marks from his high school days (which surely was a stretch to look at) all the way to the very end, which shows him addressing a crowd after he's released from prison and lighting up a bat fat joint. He does a decent job, and is a very watchable actor. In between, we get the standard biopic narrative of how it all went down. The drugs are dealt, the money comes rolling in, and the law eventually shows up later. Included are some scenes with Jack Huston and a totally over-the-top David Thewlis, both great actors. Chloë Sevigny does an OK job pulling off a British accent while playing his wife, who also gets pinched along the way.Check it out if you're interested, but there's nothing ground-breaking going on in this movie.

Howard Marks (Rhys Ifans) comes from Garw in Wales. He was the smartest kid in the coal mining region and gets beaten up for it. He gets into Oxford. One night, Ilze Kadegis (Elsa Pataky) crawls through his window and he follows her to a life of drugs. They get married and become teachers. The straight life doesn't last long. Ilze divorces him and he falls for Judy (Chloë Sevigny). When his friend Graham Plinson (Jack Huston) gets arrested in Germany, he goes over and helps transport a car filled with hashish. It's the start of a life of crime as he smuggles drugs from Afghanistan to Britain. He gets involved with IRA member Jim McCann (David Thewlis), arrested trying to smuggle into America, does a deal with the British government, and then escape.This is one biopic that is definitely less exciting than the real story. It's more of a long rambling list of crazy life. It's not done in the most exciting ways. He is simply a Nice guy with loving relationships who falls into a life of crime of a delivery guy. There is a lack of intensity or drama. It's a lot of wacky and outrageous. The danger doesn't feel visceral. It's definitely a crazy life and I can see the difficulty of distilling the random craziness into a cohesive story.

Enjoyable enough film with some good performances, but the subject matter of criminals doing illegal stuff, does nothing for me personally. The tenor of the piece seems to be that soft drugs are an expression of personal freedom and don't do any real harm, so Mr. Marks was some kind of freedom fighter. Well, your personal view is your own, but that argument does nothing for me. The law should not be made by individuals as it suits there own purpose and wonts. I dare say that may be Mr. Marks' view, but the film could be let off the hook on the defense that it is just putting the book up on the screen, which I am prepared to believe. Rhys Ifans is a charismatic presence, as ever, although David Thewlis steals their scenes in great style, Chloë Sevigny however, does not have a great deal to do. Fair enough diversion for an evening, but there are better 'drug' movies and better biopics.

There are not many movies I have not watched until the end. This is unfortunately one of them. The book is amazing but I am not sure if all the actors have read it. I read it several times because of the wild ride that it is.How anyone can turn this wild ride into a senior boat trip is beyond me.Maybe they will make a remake of it in 10 years or so.Until then I will read the book some more times......but, if you don't believe me, go see for yourself. I challenge you to watch it all the way through...