Guy Ritchie made his name with gritty British pulp thrillers. In the span of two movies – Lock Stock and Snatch – he created some of the most inventive and exciting criminals in recent fiction. As a writer/director, he became tied to the cinematic dirty underbelly of London. His original movies were so praised that he never quite reached those levels since. He’s dabbled in blockbusters with the Sherlock Holmes features and Aladdin, but really only found his groove in the snappy-dialogue-style-centered Man from U.N.C.L.E.
With The Gentlemen, we see a return to form for what once elevated Guy Ritchie to the status as a once-celebrated director.
The Gentlemen centers around a well-respected/feared American drug lord (Matthew McConaughey) who has power over the marijuana crop in England. He’s looking to get out of the business, which leaves every hungry hyena looking to lay claim on the market and take what he has.
To say that McConaughey is the protagonist would be partially inaccurate. Every character here gets their time to full develop and become the hero/villain of their own story. Because it’s Guy Ritchie who doesn’t care to tell a story from A to B, it jumps out of sequence and puts the pieces together just before the crux at the end.
I can’t help but feel that Ritchie told each actor in the movie one thing – “Have fun.” Every member of the cast is allowed to chew the scenery as if they’re performing on stage. While Colin Farrell may steal the most scenes, you can’t ignore just how strong Hugh Grant and Charlie Hunnam are in their roles.
This is a movie that could easily rest on the laurels of the performances, but the style behind it cannot be ignored. Guy Ritchie may be reheating some of his familiar tropes, but it’s a step in the right direction. The visuals describe just how this is a story within a story. Also, the comedic and dramatic timing of scenes is fantastic. Scenes pull you into tense moments that can only end poorly, but something so farcical happens, that it breaks you from the worst-case-scenario tension with immediate and surprising relief.
Fair warning. The content is heavy here as far as language goes. You may only be able to understand half of the cockney vulgarity, but the half you can understand is harsh. For those opposed to violence, it actually pulls its punches and alludes to what happens. It plays that part on a very PG-13 level. I’m no Parent’s Guide on IMDB (I could only wish), but this movie in The Gentlemen in title only.
It may be my low expectations before seeing this, or that Guy Ritchie has gone through a subjective dry spell, but The Gentlemen far exceeded the quality I expected. I hope this style of filmmaking makes a comeback. Mostly, I hope now that the director has done some big budget contract jobs, he can finally make a sequel to Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Gentlemen is the sleeper hit that’s totally welcome in a sleepy January film season. If you’ve been waiting for a movie that will give you a guilty smile, but also surprise you with the clever way the story unravels, it’s worth checking out. B+
Comments are closed.