What a pleasant January surprise.
Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen marks somewhat of a return to form for the director; a return to the gangster comedy genre that made him famous, after a slew of big-budget blockbuster adaptations wildly varying in quality. I always liked Sherlock Holmes enough, but really? What the hell was that King Arthur thing?
In fact, The Gentlemen is probably Ritchie's most modest work since Snatch, literally 20 years ago. And it very well might be his best since.
The Gentlemen is about the high-rolling, drug-dealing crime world of the UK. Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey, channeling himself) is a marijuana mogul who came up from white-trash America and is now a proud entrepreneur and king. But he's getting older and ready to move on, and he's looking for someone to buy his vast network of farms and outlets. He'd rather spend more time ogling his wife Rosalind (a steely Michelle Dockery).
But Mickey isn't really our main character. His story has mostly already happened, and it is now being framed through the lens of scuzzy, flamboyant tabloid journalist Fletcher (Hugh Grant). Fletcher has been spying on Mickey and his closest associate, Ray (Charlie Hunnam). When our story opens, he has broken into Ray's home and is now revealing to Ray everything he knows, in an attempt to blackmail him and his boss.
What we get is a delightful back-and-forth between Fletcher's story of Mickey, and the one unfolding between Fletcher and Ray. Being that Ray is somewhat held hostage in his own home, he's obliged to feed Fletcher some fine steaks and liquor as Fletcher dramatically, often unreliably retells the story.
It's in this dual-narrative dynamic that Ritchie's snappy writing and editing mesh incredibly well to tell a colorful, violent, and testosterone-soaked tale of pride and betrayal. But Grant's and Hunnam's odd-couple chemistry is really what keeps the thing alive and moving. Just when you think the convoluted, snaking crime story might be getting slow, Ritchie returns to Fletcher and Ray for a laugh or a twist.
That's not to say Mickey's story is entirely dry—though it does take a while to get moving. There's a colorful cast of associates and rivals; Henry Golding's arrogant "Dry Eye" and Jeremy Strong's cool-headed Matthew are two other drug industry big-wigs who seem to be competing for Mickey's business. And this film gives Collin Farrell his best role since 2015's The Lobster as "Coach," a wrestling/kick-boxing coach who gets roped into all this after his brash students accidentally make themselves a target of Mickey and his colleagues.
In fact, the entire cast is incredibly keyed-in to their characters and Ritchie's style. The world of The Gentlemen is one in which you wonder how people of so many different backgrounds could even come into contact with one another, and yet at the same time, you wouldn't be surprised if every single character, big or small, knew one another personally. The story, then, is a perfect storm that puts wildly different, weirdly compatible people together (or at odds).
I don't have a lot of complaints about this one, which is shocking at this point in the year. I'd say you could shave about 15 minutes off the runtime, as it felt incredibly long for a less-than-2-hour film; at the same time, Ritchie's script is a pretty tightly woven tail of twists and turns, and I would have a difficult time determining what to cut.
There are also a lot of bizarre and out-of-place racial remarks in the film. Obviously, Henry Golding is of Malaysian descent, and his character's name "Dry Eye" appears to be a reference to the prevalence of dry eye syndrome in Asian populations. That's the tip of the iceberg. Not that there are slurs flying left and right, but the pervasive presence of off-the-cuff racial remarks, and clunky language within them, raises an eyebrow when it has effectively nothing to do with the story or characters. There's also a near-rape scene that came suddenly and startlingly and felt like a completely unnecessary escalation.
Sure, maybe that's Ritchie's way of being "accurate" to the upper-class criminal underworld of the UK—I honestly don't know. But none of it seems to serve a purpose here; personally, I think Ritchie just likes to be edgy.
Those moments aside, The Gentlemen is a surprisingly fun and well-constructed gangster comedy that proves Ritchie still has the writing and directing chops he once had. It's a consistently funny, brutal, and unexpected tale of exploitation and revenge. And this early in the year? What more could you ask for?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ify9S7hj480&w=585