Shallow Grave - Danny Boyle - 1994

★★★ - Another dar comedy crime flick. This one British. Directed by Danny Boyle, of Trainspotting fame, in his debut. Stars a young Ewan McGregor, a guy I don't recognize named Christopher Eccleston, and a mom type, probably in her late 20s, named Kerry Fox. 

Gist is a group of three roomies (flatmates) in Edinburgh look for a fourth, eventually finding some guy cool enough for them who's got cash. On his first night in the house, the mysterious new tenant dies. The group finds a suitcase full of money and decide not to call the police, opting to dismember and bury him in the woods instead. This sets off this whole chain of events that leads to a lot of death and suffering. 

I liked it alright even though I thought the characters were pretty obnoxious. While they are interviewing potential roommates, they laugh in one guy's face and ask him if he really thought they would hang out with a boring loser like him. When he shows up later, waiting on them at a black-tie function, they recognize him and treat like shit. It's bad enough that he and the other waiters end up beating Ewan McGregor's character. When they get what's coming to them, you really don't mind, is what I'm trying to say. 

Film is really a contemporary morality tale. It reminds me of “The Pardoner's Tale” from Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, easily my favorite tale. If you're interested, the Pardoner sets the tale up by talking about how he sells indulgences for the Catholic Church and how it's all bullshit. He then tries to sell them pardons, which pisses everyone off, then proceeds to tell the most overtly moral tale of them all. 

Spoilers for this 600 year old plus tale. The tale involves three dudes who want to kill Death. They find an old guy under a tree who says he saw Death over by a tree. At the tree they find a treasure. They are going to carry out in the middle of the night, so no one sees them. But they don't want to go hungry or be sober, so they send one to bring back provisions. While that dude is gone, they decide to kill him as soon as he gets back. After they do the deed, they now only have to split it two ways and, hell, with all this food and wine, might as celebrate. That shit is poisoned. So, in the end, they all find Death. While this movie isn't all that bleak, it is pretty fucking bleak. Also, the theme, not exactly a new one, is “Radix malorum est cupiditas,” Latin for “The love of money is the root of all evil”—from the Book of Timothy.