Layer Cake

Layer Cake (2004) charts the perilous rise and fall of XXXX, a corporate lawyer who ventures into the drug trade with the promise of quick riches. As a series of escalating, treacherous deals ensnare him, he's forced to betray his moral code and form uneasy alliances to survive. Director Matthew Carnahan, working from John le Carré's adaptation of Iain Banks' novel, crafts a tense, morally ambiguous thriller that balances the cold precision of business with the volatile unpredictability of the underworld. The film is a sleek, cerebral exercise in corruption and compromise, where loyalty and integrity are the first casualties.