Ordinary Decent Criminal (15)

This surprisingly fun film, starring Kevin Spacey and theatre actor Stephen Dillane, is a comedy-crime caper based (loosely) on the life of Irish crime lord Michael Cahill.

Michael Lynch (Kevin Spacey) is a charismatic criminal who, despite being a notorious criminal, is something of a hero to the people of Dublin. The Garda have a great deal of trouble finding conclusive evidence of his capers, and so Lynch becomes a very confident criminal. He decides to steal the famous Caravaggio painting "The Taking Of Christ", but he end up unable to sell it, and goes on the run after framing a local IRA crime boss.

As one would expect, Spacey gives an interesting portrayal of a family man who has a nasty side (when he suspects an associate is stealing gold from him, Lynch traps the man's hands in a car door and then suspends the car, with associate attached, from the roof of a factory as punishment). Interestingly, Spacey does a fairly good Irish accent, and shows some charisma as the slightly arrogant criminal.

Scottish actor David Hayman, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Chief Superintendant Michael Walker in the ITV series "Trial & Retribution," also stars as Michael Lynch's closest friend Tony Brady. Hayman nails the role, but sadly doesn't get the screen time he perhaps should have. And, for trivia fans, watch out for a 24-year-old Colin Farrell as young Alec, one of Lynch's crew.

Although a film not well known, Ordinary Decent Criminal is funny, interesting and fun. Thaddeus O'Sullivan shows his skills as a versatile director, moving the audience between semi-fantasy anecdotes, to violent shooting, and also into fun sequences, like the fun Lynch has with a JCB on a golf course, and when Michael and Christine Lynch manage to enbarrass a team of police officers (I'll spare the details here, but it's quite funny ). The final twist, involving a bank raid, is quite clever too, showing some very clever plotwriting.

Priceless fun. This movie is well worth watching.