"Based" on a true story. I use the quotes as I'm not sure how thoroughly it's actually based on aforementioned true story. Statham plays Terry, (a small time villain who owns a car showroom) well enough, the girl playing Martine I think was 2nd choice for the role (I have the feeling Lena Heady turned it down) and needs to learn how to pronounce Marylebone correctly too. A mistake no Londoner would make. As their doing this job for MI5 (did MI6 even exist back then, they'd be an awfully new as a department wouldn't they?) off the record it's basically a black bag job.
With bent coppers on the payroll, and brothel madams photographing high flying clients in case they need to do a bit of blackmail just about everyone is on the take in this film. Set in the 1970's they've researched well, hair & clothes are very accurate. For those curious when their planning the job? Yes, Glentworth Street did & still does run parallel to Baker Street. The debt that Terry (Statham) owes must be huge as the thugs took a brand new E-Type Jaguar (easily worth two grand even then!).
It's a nice twisty plot with MI5 bosses asking a junior man to ask a girl he helped out of some drug problems to ask her slightly criminal friends to rob a vault. Simple really. Everything doesn't go to plan (they fall into a plague vault, they get overheard by a ham radio guy who phones the police) and Martine gets caught removing the contents of box 118 that MI5 wanted her to steal and it turns out its pictures of Princess Margaret having sex which is why MI5 wanted the job done in the 1st place, the robbery was just a cover for it to prevent a Royal scandal and blackmail by a group of Black Power supporters.
The tension between Terry & Martine is picked up by the remainder of the gang and she has to explain herself when he reveals the photos. It turns out the photos were taken by a drug lord who runs the black power group (and is under surveillance by a female MI5 agent) but the gang also have a book containing all the payments made by a London Porn Baron (David Suchet) to bent coppers.
Eventually Terry sets up meetings to get new passports and promises of immunity with Lord Mountbatten but there are scuffles and Terry & co get arrested but MI5 explain the situation and they get let free. Terry and his family leave England. There's also a brief explanation about the "real" robbery although details are sketchy and unlikely to be released until 2054.
The film is OK as a robbery movie and stands up well, the subplots of corruption and who trusts who are very twisty indeed. It's well worth a look.
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