Jason Flemyng’s strength is making a group worth spending time with, as his dry timing in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels shows. His frequent casting as a villain can undersell that pleasure.
Fi1m perspective
In Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), Jason Flemyng knows how much comedy a pause can hold. His Tom sits alongside Nick Moran’s Eddy, Dexter Fletcher’s Soap and Jason Statham’s Bacon, four men worth following through the complications. Guy Ritchie’s writing gives the ensemble a shared pleasure in blunt speech, and Flemyng understands the value of keeping it deadpan. We enjoyed their company because those exchanges gave us something to like beyond the workings of the plot. Flemyng helps the group hold our attention while the schemes grow more complicated.
That breakthrough was followed by Snatch (2000), again with Ritchie, which strengthened his association with British crime films. Gangsters, toughs and villains have remained regular employment, and the limitation is how readily that casting can become a habit. His work with Matthew Vaughn includes Layer Cake (2004), Kick-Ass (2010) and X-Men: First Class (2011). Returning collaborators matter for an actor whose chief pleasure, in the work we have reviewed, is how well he fits with others.
The Hollywood supporting parts complicate that picture. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) casts him as Dr Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde, putting physical transformation at the centre of the job. David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) gives him the supporting role of Thomas Button. Those are different demands from the shared deadpan delivery that makes Tom work, and they help explain why the gangster label leaves too much out.
We would like more parts that give that comic timing something to do, rather than treating another villain as sufficient use of him. Tom is no richly developed character, but Flemyng makes the shared dialogue enjoyable without forcing it. Ritchie’s camera is less restrained, and sometimes tries too hard. Try Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels for the company, provided tangled criminal schemes are your idea of an evening.
Biography
Jason Flemyng is an English actor born on 25 September 1966 in Putney, London. The son of director Gordon Flemyng, he trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in the early 1990s. He appeared in British television series including Doctor Finlay before making his film debut in The Jungle Book (1994).
Flemyng gained prominence with his role as Tom in Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). He subsequently appeared in Ritchie's Snatch (2000) and in several films produced by Matthew Vaughn, including Layer Cake (2004), Kick-Ass (2010) and X-Men: First Class (2011). Other notable credits include The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), Stardust (2007) and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). He has also worked extensively in British theatre and television.
Flemyng married actress Elly Fairman in 2008.
