RocknRolla on DVD

RocknRolla on DVD. A lot of the time our enjoyment of an event is affected more by our expectations than by the actual event. As Jason Zweig notes in his book, Your Money & Your Brain: “Your investing brain come equipped with a biological mechanism that is more aroused when you anticipate a profit than when you actually get one.” This phenomenon holds true with entertainment as well. I was not expecting much from this Guy Ritchie film about the London underworld. I was hoping it might be similar to last year’s The Bank Job and have some decent action and comedy. Instead, I was quite pleasantly surprised by its complexity. An aging, yet powerful, London mobster negotiates a huge deal with an aggressive Russian counterpart to build a large, downtown complex. The partnership is jeopardized when both parties, unbeknownst to each other, are the victims of robberies. Their interconnected quests for revenge eventually involve a supposedly dead drug-addicted musician and his former agents, a group of low-level hustlers looking for an easy score, a pair of hardened killers, corrupt politicians, and a secret police informer. The delicious Thandie Newton is more than eye candy as the Russian’s smart, tough accountant looking for a little excitement, but thinking she’s above it all. This film is certainly not as dark as the excellent Eastern Promises, but it shares some common elements and its intricate web of story lines is worth seeing.