The Gentlemen, Guy Ritchie’s return to the crime genre, with the trailer being reminiscent of his previous classics Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, was a film that looked like it was going to fit right with my usual tastes. His dialogue is usually snappy, the comedy always hits the right notes and the soundtrack always adds to the film as a whole too. The cast list for this film includes some of my absolute favourite actors as well and while some of them put in their usual impressive performances, this was unfortunately a film that I just couldn’t get into at all.
The film tells the story of Mickey Pearson, played by Matthew McConaughey, an American gangster in London whose main enterprise is built on dealing in cannabis. He is rumoured to be looking to sell on his business and retire from the crime empire that he has built up, which attracts the attention of other gangsters looking to fill the power vacuum created by Pearce’s potential retirement, most notably Chinese gangster Dry Eye, portrayed here by Henry Golding. A large chunk of the story is told to Pearson’s right hand man by a seedy journalist/scriptwriter who seems to be getting involved through his own interests, these two are played by Charlie Hunnam and Hugh Grant respectively.
This framing device and the early parts with Hunnam and Grant were the parts that didn’t particularly work for me. They seem to slow the film down a lot and even though the unreliable narrator angle can create some clever moments, it took away being able to buy into and emotionally invest in a lot of the main characters. Hugh Grant is playing massively against type here and although that is initially interesting to see, after a while it became a little one-note and grating for me, pulling away from moments and characters I wanted to see a lot more of. The comedic tone also seems to be all over the place, from previous films there’s already a set knowledge of Ritchie’s sense of humour, but rather than playful a lot of it seemed to be mean-spirited. Explicit and edgy humour does have a place and can definitely work, but here it seemed to be doing a lot of it for the sake of shock value which again, took me out of the film in a huge way.
That doesn’t mean the film is a complete misfire though. Colin Farrell’s performance in In Bruges is one of my favourite comedic performances ever and he’s brilliant again here, stealing a lot of the scenes that he is in. McConaughey also puts in a really slick performance, with a few of his scenes being the best parts of the film too. He manages to pull off a really intimidating, yet charming portrayal of a gangster in this film and you can see why he was chosen for the role. However, we spend large amounts of time away from his character Mickey Pearson, at times when I was finding him to be one of the more intriguing characters, with the unreliable narrator of Grant’s character taking away from bits of his story too. The more Charlie Hunnam comes in to the film the better it gets as well, eventually he seems to almost take over as the main character and we even see an appearance from Mancunian rapper Bugzy Malone, who does a great job playing one of Farrell’s henchmen. I can’t help but feel after watching the film that they may have all been better serviced if the script and storytelling had been a lot less convoluted and a little less pretentious.
The main word that sums up The Gentlemen for me is ‘disappointing’. In a lot of moments it feels like a pale imitation of Ritchie’s previous work and style, when it could have been so much more. The general reception to the film seems to have been mostly positive, maybe a re-watch of the film feeling more comfortable and aware of the framing device, as well as the flow of the narrative, might give me a better experience of it. There definitely are things to enjoy here, but a lot of those were immediately soured for me by wasted opportunities, cheap jokes and weak storytelling. From this director and cast, there was definitely the potential there for so much more than we got.
Overall rating – 🌟🌟/5
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