Rating: R
Runtime: 1 hour, 53 minutes
Director: Guy Ritchie
Quick Impressions:
At a certain moment in Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen, I realized, “I have become deeply invested in these characters. This had better go the way that I hope.”
What a cool movie! At this point, awards season fatigue has crept into my life again. I’m still excited for the Oscars, but I’m done watching all the nominated movies, and I’m glad. I’m ready to move on to 2020, to films made for fun, not for awards.
Often, January is a box office dumping ground, so while I was intrigued by the trailers for The Gentlemen, Guy Ritchie’s latest all star British gangster film, I have to admit that I didn’t expect much. But this movie surprised me. It’s fantastic. I have no idea why it didn’t get a flashier release date. It’s pure fun, extremely entertaining, obviously a fantasy, but well acted, witty, fast paced, and crowd pleasing. Fans of Guy Ritchie’s early work should love it, and it feels like a solid hit for star Matthew McConaughey who’s had more misses than desirable of late. Word of mouth from fans of the genre is bound to be positive on this one.
This movie isn’t trying to win Oscars, but it definitely entertains a game audience and should easily find a lasting place within the subgenre of upbeat crime fantasies. (Gritty realism is certainly not its strong suit. I’d guess The Gentlemen has about as much in common with the world of actual crime lords as Oceans 8. But it’s thrilling and delightful to experience, nevertheless.)
The Good:
The Gentlemen benefits greatly from an all star cast that it actually utilizes to its advantage. Matthew McConaughey is fantastic as marijuana king Mickey Pearson, the crime boss you love to root for, and Charlie Hunnam plays his always cool right-hand-man Ray with compelling aplomb. As Mickey’s tough, savvy, garage owning wife Michelle Dockery is a long way from Downton Abbey, and Henry Golding (as Mickey’s more grasping than cunning antagonist Dry Eye) makes a very smart move by playing someone other than the handsome husband/love interest. (I just found out that Golding’s next movie role is Snake Eyes, by far the most interesting character in the G.I. Joe universe who is finally getting his own movie.) I also loved Jeremy Strong as Matthew, the very vocally Jewish American player with his crisp diction and slippery schemes. The cast goes on and on, actually, and all of the characters are fun to watch, though some are richer and more complex than others
But by far the film’s biggest scene stealers are Hugh Grant as Fletcher, a wackily roguish would-be screenwriter/blackmailer, and Colin Farrell as the Coach, a street smart gym owner who wisely wants nothing to do with organized crime. Grant has a gift for comedy, and Farrell has always been a favorite of mine. His character probably has the greatest potential for further exploration.
The film is intricately plotted, slowly revealed, and fun to watch unfold with a fairly rewarding payoff. Perhaps the payoff could be a bit bigger, but if you’re like me, you’ll find yourself hoping things go a certain way. When they do, it’s such a pleasant relief. Ritchie’s goal with The Gentlemen is crystal clear. He wants to entertain the audience, and he does. Honestly, after months of engaging deeply with often self-important Oscar movies, the experience is quite refreshing. This movie isn’t above giving the audience what we want. It gives us an entertaining story, not a realistic one. Like Hugh Grant hawking his screenplay, The Gentlemen is absolutely shameless when it comes to pleasing the audience.
But now, don’t get the wrong idea. The story is clever. The dialogue is sharp. The characters are delightfully idiosyncratic. This isn’t the kind of entertainment where you turn off your brain completely and just watch stuff blow up. In fact, in the beginning, the story is parceled out to us slowly and putting the pieces together, becoming familiar with the characters and anticipating the direction of the plot takes quite a long time of attentive watching. Like the characters, you do have to think fast, or you will be lost. But still, the whole exercise is quite fun. The point is to enjoy yourself, not to educate yourself on the sad realities of urban crime.
The action scenes are always highly energized because of their unpredictability. This isn’t a film where everyone is fighting all the time. The main conflict is more a battle of wits, and the most pulse-pounding moments of violent action is usually the result of some random accident.
Also, as my husband noted several times, the music in the film is really cool. I wasn’t paying particular attention to the score, but the soundtrack is exceptionally exciting with a great rap at the end by Bugzy Malone who also plays a young pupil of the Coach named Ernie.
Maybe I don’t have a good sense of crime movies, but to me this one feels like it could become iconic. I’m honestly baffled by its January release date. Why does no one have confidence in this? It may not be the greatest film of all time, but I can’t imagine any Guy Ritchie fans being disappointed. This is one of those films that you will definitely like if you watch the trailer and say to yourself, “I love movies like that. I should watch that.” If you like
Snatch and
Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, then you should like
The Gentlemen, too. It’s that simple.
Best Scene Visually:
The film’s opening scene made a huge impression on my husband. He talked at length about the composition of one indelible shot, a haunting image.
I personally enjoyed the interruption of the YouTube videos posted by the Coach’s boys (though I prefer the ones of theft and fighting to the later Black Mirroresque feature.)
Best Scene:
For me, the best part of the entire movie was Matthew McConaughey’s line the moment after the unexpectedly chaotic episode with Phuc. That’s not an entire scene, though.
Perhaps best is the introduction of the Coach. Colin Farrell has such a fun part in this movie.
Best Action Sequence:
For me, the most suspenseful action sequence belongs to Michelle Dockery. “What you doing?” I wanted to yell at the screen when I felt like she was making an obvious tactical error.
I also enjoyed the recovery of the phones.
The Negatives:
If you go into this expecting a gritty expose of real crime, you might be disappointed. This isn’t true crime. It’s not even an epic tragedy tinged with darkness and regret like The Godfather or The Irishman. This isn’t a “crime has consequences movie.” It’s a “crossing the protagonist of this film has consequences” movie. That makes it more fun, of course, but some people might find it too inconsequential to be truly enjoyable.
Possibly, The Gentlemen could legitimately offend people, too, though probably not the people most excited to see it. Its language is sometimes coarse in a very British way. (They’re all going to see each other next Tuesday, you know. And some could consider the implications of such insults intrinsically misogynistic.) Also some people might not agree with the Coach’s assessment of what is and is not racist and might question his authority to make such a judgment. There’s a lot of vaguely racist, sexist stuff swirling around, although the few female characters we do see are all fairly strong (even though one makes a terrible mistake, so good thing there was a man to save her).
I mean, these people are criminals, so it’s not like we need to look to them as moral exemplars. I do love, though, that the movie is called The Gentlemen, and the story focuses mainly on how enough money enables respectability in society. In Mickey’s case, his whole empire depends entirely on the British upper classes, the peerage, who support him because of their desperate need for money. Perhaps the film could push a little harder on this idea, exploring it further. The movie would be elevated by more of a “point” at the end. (As is, the point seems to be, “Yea!!!!!!” clap clap clap.)
I would definitely watch a sequel, though. I would probably watch a whole franchise, or any number of spin-offs about some of the more engaging characters.
Overall:
I thoroughly enjoyed Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen, far more than I expected. It’s a strong film (too strong for January) that fans of the genre will like. It’s fun to watch, has cool music, and is well acted by a game cast playing delightful characters. If the rest of the movies in 2020 are up this standard, we are in for an amazing year.
