Mr. Nice (Bernard Rose, 2010)

The biopic of erstwhile major league cannabis smuggler Howard Marks benefits from ideal casting with the versatile (and, importantly, very Welsh) Rhys Ifans as the titular lead. Ifans has a range that accommodates effortless flipping from arch and cocksure to wounded and reflective, which is what Rose's construct repeatedly calls for - Marks is plainly a folk hero through this film's filter, and guilty of not much else except foolhardily expedient associations with ineffectual terrorists and an inability to quit while he's ahead. So the tone determinedly steers clear of the judgemental and skips lightly from one key incident to another in Marks's career without getting bogged down in heavy repercussions. It's wholly anecdotal, and as such as diverting as you'd except from a slightly squiffy bon-vivant raconteur, but also as lightweight as that suggests.

6/10