Howard Marks was a drug smuggler who, when on the run as a Wanted Criminal, stole the identity of a Denis Nice. And according to this entertaining biopic based on his life it was a very appropriate name for him as everybody (except the police and customs officials) seemed to love this rather charming and outgoing fun-loving family man.
As the movie is based on Mr. Mark’s own account of his rather colorful life in which he wrote on how he could spin a good yarn with little regard to the truth, I guess we can take some of the facts with more than a pinch of salt. He did after all have 43 different aliases at one time. Anyway it is true that he was born in 1945 in a working class family in a small Welsh village. A bright boy, he defied expectations and won a scholarship to the prestigious Balliol College in Oxford which was both the start of his fascination with learning, and also cannabis.
He started smoking marijuana as way of fitting in with all the middle and upper class students with their privileged backgrounds, and in the end became not just one of them, but actually their leader as he ended up suppling them with their ‘dope’. Howard was amazed not only how easy this was, but also that he could make money doing it too.
However he graduated, got married, became a school teacher, until one day a friend in a fix asked Howard to rescue a car full of cannabis that was stranded in Europe. He does, makes some real money, and is hooked. There is no turning back and he sets himself up as smuggler/dealer to make his fortune.
It’s rather a mad story that has him persuading the IRA to use their gun running activities to help him import resin from Pakistan, and he has get gets more and more successful, and its not until Howard sets his eyes on a bigger market i.e. the USA, does he start to get into trouble with the Law.
The every creative Mr. Marks is now cornered and facing hefty charges in Court and so he claims he is in fact an undercover spy for the UK’s Secret Service and produces a telephone number of a high-ranking official and gets set free. This time anyway. Later on despite trying to invoke the same excuse when he is on trial in Florida, he finally ends up in jail.
This delightful and funny film is no masterpiece by any means, but is thoroughly entertaining. How much is true, is kind of irrelevant to the story. What I think is indisputable is that Marks always stuck to marijuana and never ever dealt in hard drugs, and as that as is essentially a ‘herb’ which should be legal anyway, he probably isn’t a criminal at all. And there is very noticeable none of the usual gang warfare or in fact and violence at all. But it is probable Mark’s total devotion as a family man with his wife and children that is the sealing ingredient to the fact that he really was a very nice bloke (chap)
Playing Marks in his first leading role is Welshman Rhys Ifan who, borne out by the DVD extras IS Howard marks. It’s a wonderful performance and he imbues it with his great gift of comic timing. Chloe Sevigny plays his wife : an odd casting choice and I really cannot fathom out why.
A good Brit comedy that will make you laugh without the need to resort smoking a ‘joint’ first.
