Saturday, January 11, 2020

Film Review: The Gentlemen

Film Number: 4
Stars: 4.5

Love him, loathe him, never heard of him, Guy Ritchie is an interesting film maker. Okay, he was married to Madonna for a while. Okay, he has directed all sorts of things from Sherlock Holmes to Aladdin to The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

But you mention Guy Ritchie's name and the film that first comes to mind is Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. As a direction, he's known for action, short takes and lots of noise. As a writer, he's fun, racy, inappropriate and multi-faceted - and this has a fantastic script. It's wonderful. Very wrong in lots of ways, but wonderful.

The Gentlemen plays to all of Ritchie's strengths. If anything, he's outdone himself.


I'm not going to say too much about the plot. You don't need to know much.

Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConnaughey) is wanting to divest himself of his very lucrative, London-based marijuana business. He is approached, in the first instance, by Matthew (Jeremy Strong) who offers to take the company off his hands. Adding to the complexity of the sale, Dry Eye (Henry Golding) and the Hong Kong mafia also want a piece of the action.

In the background,  Raymond (Charlie Hunnam) Mickey's minder, is approached by Fletcher (Hugh Grant), a private investigator,  who tries to blackmail him to keep Mickey's business dealing under wraps. It's Hugh Grant's Fletcher who weaves the story together over the film's two hours.

That's all I'm going to say.  As with most of Ritchie's films, there are a lot of different narrative streams which mix all together and all line up in the end. It all gets explained, you just have to wait for some of the arcs to bear dividends. You'll ask yourself questions like who is the dude in the freezer and where did the group affectionately known as The Toddlers come from. You don't have to wait too long to get answers. It all lines up in the end.

Didn't Chekhov say something about if there was a gun on the wall in the first act, it has to be fired? There are a lot of breadcrumbs to collect, disseminate and watch as they are concluded. (The "Flying Phuc" being one of those breadcrumbs.)

Also, similar to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,  the film isn't particularly politically correct, it's a bit racist, there's a shitload of guns and drugs and it's rather violent. The script is peppered with expletives, but none of this is out of context. It's rated MA here in Australia - but I'm an adult and had an inkling or what I was getting myself into.

I loved every minute of it.

This film has a bit of everything. Lots of funny action, enough plot twists to keep you awake (okay, a bit of speed might help to keep you on top of the twists), far too many one-liners that have you spitting your drink over the person in front of you and very few morals. The good guys are bad, but they do have a code - so you have to love them for that.

For me, it was Charlie Hunnam's as Mickey's minder with a touch of OCD, Hugh Grant's gormless private investigator and Colin Farrell as an unwitting gym owner-come-boxing coach who stole the show.

Hugh Grant, was the standout.  He goes against type, with raging Cockney accent and the disposition of your least favourite uncle who's shown up unannounced on Christmas Day. He's hilarious and worth the price of the ticket just to see how much fun he's having.

Similar for Colin Farrell, who's character, Coach, is dragged into the mess. He's the straight man, and again, he's very, very funny in a blackly humorous way.

Charlie Hunnam gives a stellar performance as Raymond, who's trying to get to the bottom of the mess.

Michelle Dockery played Mickey's wife Ros. Seeing Downton Abbey's Lady Mary with a broad Essex accent is another delight. Matthew McConnaughey plays to type as Mickey. Of all of the characters, he has the easiest job all of.

You get a feeling that the cast would have happily worked for free on this film. They've all having a ball, and it shows.

Set all around London and Southern England, you get to see the best and worst of what English film sets have to offer. To be honest, it made me a little homesick.

The Gentlemen isn't going to be for everybody, but if you need a funny, lightweight diversion with plenty of action and enough laughs to cheer you up, this might well be your film. Not for the easily offended or squeamish, I think it's up there with Logan Lucky as an unexpected gem.


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