- "My old man wrote me a letter from prison once. It said: "if you don't want to end up in here, stay away from crime, women and drugs". The trouble is, it don't leave you much else to do, does it?"— Frankie
The Business is a 2005 British film written and directed by Nick Love (yes, that one). It stars Danny Dyer, Tamer Hassan, Roland Manookian (all three actors of whom appeared in the director's previous film, The Football Factory), Geoff Bell, and Georgina Chapman.
Frankie is a young everyman living in the South East of London during the Thatcher era of the 1980's (specifically 1984). He has little hope of ever making anything of himself - yet, he dreams of "being somebody" and escaping his lonely, dreary lifestyle. After severely beating his mother's abusive boyfriend, he becomes a fugitive, and through family connections escapes to the Costa del Sol. His job: to deliver a bag containing money to "Playboy Charlie", an expat and criminal-on-the-run, a suave and dapper man who runs his own nightclub. Impressed by Frankie's honesty in not opening the bag, Charlie begins to takes a liking to him, and introduces him to his business associates, including the psychopathic Sammy - ultimately inviting him to remain in Spain and work as his driver. The things that follow will draw Frankie into a wild, flamboyant underworld of drugs and change his life forever...
The original music for the film was written by Ivor Guest, but most of the soundtrack consists of popular '80's chart hits by artists such as Duran Duran, Simple Minds, David Bowie, Blondie and more, which give the film much of its atmosphere and flavor.
Tropes in the movie include:
- Give Me Back My Wallet: The film's prologue sees Frankie and an unnamed gangster attempting and threatening to kill a Spanish family because they just won't tell them where they keep their guns.
- Evil Brit: Nearly everyone in the film is this trope to the fullest. You can easily tell Nick Love was having a lot of fun writing the screenplay here, it's like he'd kick out anyone that told him not to Spice Up the Subtitles.
- Millionaire Playboy: Charlie.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: As noted above, the majority of the film's soundtrack consists of popular '80's chart hits by artists such as Duran Duran, Simple Minds, David Bowie, Blondie and more, which give the film much of its atmosphere and flavor - and even accompany some of the most violent scenes in the film.
