Disappointed by Guy Ritchie's projects after Lock Stock and Snatch, I turned to the work of early collaborator Matthew Vaughn in search of a similar fix. After about thirty minutes with this, though, the truth of the matter became painfully clear: Vaughn needs Ritchie just as much as Ritchie needs Vaughn. It's an unpolished picture, all twist and no character - the polar opposite of Ritchie's latest caper flick, RocknRolla.

Layer Cake's heart is in the right place, with a setup so familiar it may as well have come straight from the same brainstorming sessions that produced the duo's earlier collaborations. But try as it might, this film just can't manage to grant its players the same kind of mettle that was so present in those preceding pictures. They're lifeless before running into a violent end, going through the motions but lacking the conviction to make their words feel authentic. And there are no less than three dozen of them, many of whom are on screen for less then ten minutes, playing major off-camera roles amidst all of the twisting and the turning. I had a hard enough time remembering everybody's names, let alone keeping track of their ever-shifting allegiances.

Convoluted, conflicted and confusing, this is a cake that needed a bit more time in the oven. Or more frosting... everybody loves frosting.