Released: 1st January 2020 (UK)
Length: 113 Minutes
Certificate: 18
Director: Guy Ritchie
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Eddie Marsan, Colin Farrell and Hugh Grant
Guy Ritchie has found himself in an interesting place over the last ten years, tipped by Hollywood to move into high budget summer flicks that didn’t always reach massive success. Two decades after he launched himself onto the British filmmaking scene, Ritchie has returned to the more contained genre that made him memorable with The Gentlemen, a solid production that brings the director back to basics.
The Gentleman follows drug king Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey) who is looking to bank big on the marijuana trade throughout Great Britain alongside his personal assistant Raymond (Charlie Hunnam). Rubbing shoulders with both the tax-dodging lords of country estates and the rowdy youths of London, Mickey and his subordinates look to stay on top of the drug running business and put down their competitor’s efforts to undermine them. The whip-smart style of Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch is in full effect here; comprised of slick dialogue, over the top characters and actions colliding together with often humorous payoffs. The story is told as a recount at first, with Raymond sitting at home and commenting on the various escapades him and his boss went through; there’s clashes, snitching and violence abound and for the most part, it’s very entertaining to watch. Characters bounce back and forth between friends, foes and locations in a very energetic manner. With that said, the film’s tension doesn’t quite boil fully, opting instead for a collection of comedic moments, slightly dampening its overall engagement.
As the title implies, the gangsters of The Gentlemen are well dressed, well funded and in command. Every main member of the cast does a great job; McConaughey’s Mickey is confident in his position, never losing his nerve and the same is true of Raymond. There’s a consistent string of witty, sarcastic dialogue that really puts them in command of every scene they’re in. Even with all these wild sequences, it’s Hugh Grant as the snide, blackmailing detective Fletcher who may bring the biggest impact. With his cockney accent and insane amount of dialogue to deliver, he’s always on point with both delivery and plot progression, often acting as the narrator. Eddie Marsan as the raging, bitter editor of a British tabloid brings plenty of humour Colin Farrell’s Coach, the tough yet fair leader of a band of boxers, who always interjects with the right amount of levity. If there’s any issue with the cast, it’s that not all of them get the chance to stamp their memorable presence onto the viewer. Take Michelle Dockery’s Rosalind Pearson; a no-nonsense manager of an underground auto garage who doesn’t receive as much screen time as the other characters. When compared to previous efforts when just about every character was memorable, The Gentlemen falls a little short here.
Featuring his trademark style of quick cuts and smooth transitions, The Gentleman’s presentation and technical details are quintessentially Ritchie; scenes snap and move back and forth quickly, never slowing down the pace. With the large gap between it and its contemporaries, the film has plenty of fun extracting humour from modern technology and the annals of British society and the same is true of the music. Christopher Benstead’s score always matches the quick pace of the action with a wide array of artists making the cut. Sometimes more inventive techniques slip in, the highlight being a wacky GoPro capture of a factory beat-down. Nearly every filmmaking detail of The Gentlemen serves its story and casts the director’s distinctive style back onto the big screen in a brilliant way.
It may not be the best or most memorable of Guy Ritchie’s work but The Gentlemen is a brilliantly written, well-paced and entertaining flick that reaffirms where his real strengths lie. It’s great to see the director return to his roots like this, rather than continue with bloated Hollywood blockbusters; I hope he continues down this route in the future.
Rating: 4/5 Stars (Great)