Ordinary decent criminal

Kevin Spacey plays Michael Lynch, a suave and cocky Irish gangster who has something of a reputation with ordinary folk as a local hero. With a loyal gang and always two steps ahead of the law, Michael plans numerous heists, such as a daylight robbery of a precious Caravaggio, along with pulling ordinary bank jobs and robbing his own dole office. Michael’s unusual home life consists of two partners, who are sisters, and numerous children, a delightful arrangement for one and all. Enraged by Michael’s elusiveness and brazen disregard for authority, the police place him and his lot under unyielding surveillance, but the scallywag gives them the slip every time. “Ordinary decent criminal” is a reworking of the true to life Martin Cahill story as told in “The General” (John Boorman, 1998), a far more cynical film about crime. O’Sullivan’s film has a certain incongruity in tone - it is mostly jaunty with a hip soundtrack, but occasionally cuts to violent encounters. Spacey depicts Lynch as a clever, vain and loveable rouge with a wry smile, but a thief and swindler at heart.