top of page

Our Recent Posts

Archive

Tags

The Gentlemen

Tyler Harlow

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Hugh Grant, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Colin Farrell, Eddie Marsan

Director: Guy Ritchie

Drug Lord Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey) has built his cannabis empire all over England. When rumor gets out that he is looking to sell his profitable business and settle down with his wife, Rosalind (Michelle Dockery), everyone wants a piece; from American billionaire Matthew (Jeremy Strong) to Chinese gangster and competition Dry Eye (Henry Golding). After one of Mickey's safe houses is robbed and the culprits turn the robbery into a rap video, Mickey and his right hand man Raymond (Charlie Hunnam) look to find whoever was responsible before it damages the sale. Meanwhile, PI Fletcher (Hugh Grant), has been hired by tabloid editor Big Dave (Eddie Marsan) to bring down Pearson. Fletcher, instead, would rather blackmail Mickey and tries to sell the information he has found about Mickey's dealings, which he has written into a screenplay. Double crosses abound as the plot against Mickey grows more and more intense as the battle for Mickey's kingdom intensifies.


It's a shame this movie wasn't more fun, as this was Ritchie's return to his roots. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch basically played in my home nonstop throughout my high school and college years. I love a good gangster comedy and those were very memorable. While his love of complicated plotting hasn't changed, I felt like a lot of his energy did.


Being an R-Rated film, this is a very restrained film by Guy Ritchie standards. There is some violence but it mostly takes place off screen. Ritchie gives the movie time to breathe, something some of his earlier movies admittedly did not. Ritchie also revels in being able to be crass again. He was stuck in PG-13 studio mode and lets the profanity and foul humor fly with reckless abandon in this film.


The plot is way more convoluted than it ever needed to be. It's a very simple story that the movie goes out of its way to twist, tell out of order, flashback, and rewind to show you what you missed. Especially in the first 30 minutes, which are very exposition heavy, I got a little lost trying to remember how everything was connected. There is nothing necessarily wrong with these techniques that Ritchie uses, but it doesn't help the plot and instead feels like it's there to pad out the run time.


This is honestly one of my most favorite casts of a movie I have seen in some time and they are uniformly excellent. Hugh Grant steals the movie and I hope this late career resurgence continues. He spews Ritchie's dialogue with a glee I have never seen from the actor. I also love Colin Farrell in this movie. His character, Coach, who runs a boxing gym and becomes an unwilling participant in the film's proceedings, is a delight. He is unfazed by the violence and criminal goings-on around him but is only doing it to protect the boys under his care at the gym and to teach them a lesson. Anytime these two are on screen, the movie crackles. I was also very surprised by how much I liked McConaughey in this. He seems very out of place, an American in a British gangster film, but he dives into the role and gets some great contemplative and philosophical dialogue that had peppered one of Ritchie's previous films, Revolver. As the lone main female, Dockery also gets some great scenes but I could have used more. She also seems very happy to not be in Downton Abbey and get to let loose. If you couldn't tell, the cast makes the movie.


And I think, again, that's the most disappointing thing. It's great to see Ritchie back in his element but because of needlessly convoluted plotting, I didn't enjoy it as much as I could or should have. Come for the stellar cast.


C+

bottom of page