I'll Sleep When I'm Dead

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I'll Sleep When I'm Dead

R,

2003,

1h 42m,

Crime/

Drama/

Mystery & Thriller/

Action

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Watchlist

Watchlist

47%

89 Reviews

Tomatometer

35%

5,000+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

47%

Tomatometer

89 Reviews

35%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

Former gangster Will Graham is living a quiet life in the English countryside. When he learns his brother, a low-level drug dealer, has committed suicide, Will travels to London to investigate his death. He reconnects with his former lover, Helen, and starts piecing together the circumstances surrounding his brother's death. When he learns a man named Boad is responsible, Will seeks revenge.

Critics Consensus

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead's spare performances and slick style are undermined by a lack of cohesive story, yielding a neatly packaged noir with little substance beneath its polished surface.

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Antonia Quirke

London Evening Standard

Dec 15, 2017

Hodges films London restlessly, as though searching for some kind of relief. We are taken from cafs to flats to streets to houses to morgues to garages, in short unsentimental scenes while he drums up an odd, powerful mood of apprehensiveness.

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Marjorie Baumgarten

Austin Chronicle

Aug 8, 2004

2.5/5

This sad, dark movie moves across the screen like a sleepwalker, aloof and belonging neither to this world nor the next.

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Eric Harrison

Houston Chronicle

Jul 30, 2004

B+

Matching the movie's restrained style, Owen is extraordinarily still, and all the more riveting because of it.

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Frank J. Avella

The Contending

Jun 16, 2025

B

I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead is a stylish, atmospheric crime flick...Hodges certainly knew his craft and gave us a few cinematic gems.

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Jun 15, 2025

3/4

A major complaint from the naysayers was that it’s too low-key and doesn’t really lead anywhere, but in this case, those are actually pluses.

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Miles Fielder

The List

Apr 18, 2019

3/5

If anything, there a little too much dramatic action to be fully explored here. But if that makes for a slightly unsatisfying end result, it's no great criticism of an otherwise mature, sleazy piece of British film noir.

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Hagrid P

Mar 13, 2017

Wow. What a waste of time. Why not just give a toddler a gun and have him shoot at a camera for a couple of hours. Oh, and have him sat in a chair in East London - for atmosphere. Dull. Dull. Dull.

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Mike Hodges

Director

Clive Owen

Will Graham

Charlotte Rampling

Helen

Jonathan Rhys-Meyers

Davey Graham

Malcolm McDowell

Boad

Jamie Foreman

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Synopsis

Former gangster Will Graham is living a quiet life in the English countryside. When he learns his brother, a low-level drug dealer, has committed suicide, Will travels to London to investigate his death. He reconnects with his former lover, Helen, and starts piecing together the circumstances surrounding his brother's death. When he learns a man named Boad is responsible, Will seeks revenge.

Director: Mike Hodges
Producer: Mike Kaplan, Richard E. Johnson, Michael Corrente
Screenwriter: Trevor Preston
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Production Co: Will & Company, Mosaic Film Group, Revere Pictures
Rating: R (Language|Brief Drug Use|Rape|Violent Images)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery & Thriller, Action
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): May 16, 2003, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 15, 2011
Box Office (Gross USA): $358.8K
Runtime: 1h 42m
Sound Mix: Surround, Dolby SRD
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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