Fim Review: Snatch

What looks like London’s answer to Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction turned out to be a shallower version that comes with two separated plots which both appear to be begging for everything to end.

“Snatch” operates on two storylines: The search for a knuckle-sized diamond that was acquired through a robbery; and a boxer promoter (Jason Statham as ‘Turkish’) who has to manage his fighter (Brad Pitt) into deliberately throwing a fight as ordered by a notorious gangster (‘Brick Top’).

The film heavily relies on riff-music and editing to control a convoluted picture that is heavily populated by a myriad of characters and several self-serving micro plots. Guy Ritchie played with slow-to fast motion, jump-cuts, and one Goodfella-like pause scene while the narration continues. Sometime it feels like Ritchie just put the camera on a Lazy Susan and spun it while the scene goes.

The characters soon find themselves entangled with each other albeit of varying degrees. Popping up like relief benchwarmers, several characters are inserted into the story just to fulfil a task deemed necessary so as to conveniently bridge the film up to its end. Jump-cut is the weapon of choice to transition several scenes from one to another-highlighted during the comically fast journey from America to London by the New York jeweller “Cousin Avi”.

Ritchie subjected the picture on a London environment that seeps with urban decay coupled with police-free violence. This effect further improved the visual texture apt for Snatch.

And with the left-and-right exchange of civil disobedience, you’d wonder why only on the last part of the film that a policeman has appeared. A good decision perhaps as an intrusion of policeman in the middle of the plot would only congest the scenes more.

It is easy to get lost following the story alone but when you account the accents (given that we’re not used to it), then there’s no reason left why you’re not down on your knees asking for a subtitle. Brad Pitt’s accent is a speech defect. I don’t care if it’s born out of culture. His accent is spoken like he had just tripped over a rake and impaled portions of his tongue with it.

Snatch is a ride. It is a visual ride with a story that shouldn’t be taken seriously. There is nothing beneath it. It has nothing to prove except that it has great editing and a roster of actors with serious chops.