The Gentlemen is Guy Ritchie’s latest feature film after 2017 King Arthur legend of the sword (which I didn’t actually hate despite a mostly negative critical reception) and the 2019 live-action Aladdin which was alright, but I always thought Richie was an odd choice to direct but overall it didn’t ruin my childhood.
The Gentlemen follows Mickey Pearson (played by Matthew McConaughey) an American ‘entrepreneur’ who makes his fortune by pretty much monopolizing the marijuana industry in London with help with his henchmen and right-hand man Raymond (Charlie Hunnam) and his beautiful wife Rosalind (Michelle Dockery). And when Mickey is debating whether or not to leave the weed game it attracts a plethora of wannabes who want in on Mickey’s fortune.
The film opens up with Mickey walking into a pub and asking for a pint. Here, literally 20 seconds in, I notice a small little easter egg as the Ale that mickey orders is called Gritchie
(a play on Guy Ritchie’s name). Mickey sits down to drink his pint when his wife calls him to arrange a date night. Mickey then says “Wait, who else is there with you?”. A man approaches Mickey from behind draws a pistol; a gunshot is heard, a blood splatter is seen and that is our opening scene. It tricks the audience to thinking our main protagonist has gotten killed in the first opening minute of the film and then the entire film is someone telling the story of Mickey’s downfall, and in a way, it is but Ritchie keeps the audience engaged by creating a film that has a lot of surprises and stand-out performances from everyone involved.
We have all seen crime films before and Ritchie’s filmography is mostly that, but Ritchie’s films are sort of in the middle for me, I don’t love his films and i don’t hate them they’re just a fun watch. But I, like most people, have a guilty pleasure for crime films so sometimes I find myself enjoying the worst of the worst just because of the subject matter. The Gentlemen, however, was a surprise I actually found myself loving this movie. The plot although straight forward was well-paced and well thought out. It was surprisingly funny but it didn’t feel out of place because of the chemistry the cast had with each other (similar praise I had for 2019 Hobbs and Shaw, I hate the Fast and Furious Franchise but that was a pleasant surprise).
However, what stands out here are the performances. Everyone in this film is fantastic and are perfectly cast. Matthew McConaughey’s charisma just flows out the character; Charlie Hunnam’s Raymond is loyal and believable as his right-hand man (and myself and my girlfriend have made the mutual decision that he is absolutely gorgeous, and yes I wrote that off my own back). Colin Farrell is amazing as the self-titled “ The Coach” (in which a scene with him in a cafe is my favourite scene in the movie). The antagonists who are trying the get in on Mickey’s fortune (played by Jeremy Strong and Henry Golding amongst others) play the villain roles perfectly as one of them is sly and deceitful whilst the other in the words of Fletcher (Hugh Grant) “Explodes on to the scene like a millennial firework.”
Now, speaking of Fletcher, Hugh Grant gives a show-stopping performance here as the private eye detective. It’s by far the best performance I have ever seen Grant give in a movie and it narrows down to three things; number one, he is convincing in the role. His cockiness and ‘I’m better than you’ attitude makes him disappear in the role. Number two, he is extremely funny everything that comes out of his mouth is comedy gold (i was full-blown Joker laughing at times). And number three, he speaks my language as he tells the story to Raymond he describes it as a movie. Having Raymond and himself act out scenes as different characters (commenting on Raymond’s “shitty acting”) describing the shot of his film and then the scene that flashes back plays out in the same shots as Fletcher describes it. My favourite part is that he has written down his finding as an investigator as a screen-play and says if he isn’t paid his blackmail sum, he will sell the movie to Miramax (the studio that was involved in making The Gentlemen.)
The way the film is delivered to us through the back and forth banter and storytelling between Raymond and Fletcher are what makes the pace of this film so excellent we have time to digest and think about what we have just seen without worrying about missing anything too important and the 2-hour runtime didn’t drag on.
Final Score.
Title:Great.
Guy Ritchie has made an exceptional black comedy on the crime genre with convincing performances, great film making and a film that is really funny but also kind of dark in places with its subject matter of drug addiction and what people think they can get away with when they have power.
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