It's just that. Just a story.

Rating: 10/10 (15 December 2009)

Snatch is shorthand for "convoluted plot, unintelligible dialects, quirky styling, superficially gratifying, and wildly entertaining film-making." Indeed, Guy Ritchie's 2000 follow-up to the fan-favorite Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels follows a familiar formula, delivering a picture that's not exactly coherent but not particularly difficult to follow on a base level. Fortunately, there's little to Snatch beyond the surface, making it easy to digest despite the many obstacles that keep it from being more readily accessible in a traditional narrative style. Snatch interconnects two major plot lines, neither of which are of any moral, spiritual, emotional, or otherwise philosophically important structure or value; instead, the film cares only about the visceral aspects of the violent, corrupt, and complex world it weaves, a world where anything goes, a tone that's reflected in Ritchie's haphazard and highly kinetic but wonderfully effective visual approach to the material.
Snatch follows two stories that interconnect by film's end: that of a stolen diamond and a series of fixed boxing matches gone awry. The former begins with the theft of a flawless and particularly large 86-carat gem by the skilled Frankie "Four Fingers" (Benicio del Toro), and he and the diamond become the object of desire by a broad spectrum of sleazy and unscrupulous individuals: American Avi Denovitz (Dennis Farina), hit man Bullet Tooth Tony (Vinne Jones), Doug the Head (Mike Reid), Boris the Blade (Rade erbedija), and assorted low-level goons. Meanwhile, illegal boxing promoter Brick Top (Alan Ford) has a rigged fight lined up, but when his underling Turkish (Jason Statham) sends Tommy (Stephen Graham) and boxer Gorgeous George (Adam Fogerty) to secure him a new camper from a group of "pikeys," George is severely injured in a fight with Mickey O'Neil (Brad Pitt), leaving Turkish and Tommy with no choice but to ask Mickey to enter the ring as George's replacement.
No matter the ins-and-puts of the plot; Snatch is more about the experience than the story, more about understanding the hows rather than the whys. Few films can succeed on style alone, and Snatch seems to go out of its way to prove itself the exception to that rule. Though its narrative isn't impossible to follow, it's moderately difficult for a myriad of reasons: borderline unintelligible accents, a plethora of main characters, varied motivations, interconnecting stories and fates, and a highly-charged and unorthodox visual style. All told, Snatch seems the epitome of a film destined to collapse under its own weight and convoluted collection of elements, but Director Guy Ritchie handles the entire spectrum of cinematic no-nos with tongue seemingly planted in-cheek, lending to the film a none-too-serious tone despite its dark and violent elements surrounding England's seediest Criminal underbellies and enterprises. Indeed, Snatch -- and Ritchie's other films -- is of its own personal style, a genre of its own, a film that can only be imitated but not duplicated, for few films enjoy such a mind-bendingly unique approach as this.
Snatch is a product of style, and as such, elements other than story prove more valuable to the experience, and the movie benefits greatly from its collection of talent found on either side of the camera. Guy Ritchie's direction is fluid, an organic ensemble of elements that give the film a life of its own, and it's complimented by a frenetic and terribly loud soundtrack that jumps into the mix and injects an additional jolt of energy into the experience. Together, the film's look and sound define the high energy concept, and both help in equal parts to energize a picture that otherwise suffers from the aforementioned issues that would seem to spell certain doom for a picture that dared take itself even the least bit more serious than Snatch. On the other side of the lens, Snatch's entire cast turn in memorable performances within the context of the film. The accents are thick but the dialogue is witty, and each character seems fully immersed in the film's helter-skelter style. Brad Pitt is particularly engaging as the "pikey" fighter Mickey O'Neil who encapsulates the entire experience, speaking with a particularly thick accent that even the other characters in the film have a hard time discerning, but he also makes for the most complex character that suffers greatly but also reaps a particularly handsome reward. Snatch also enjoys wonderful performances from a combination of name stars (Jason Statham, Benicio del Toro) and plenty of character actors at the top of their craft (Dennis Farina, Alan Ford).