The Movie: The Gentlemen
The Director: Guy Ritchie
The Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Michelle Dockery, Hugh Grant, Jeremy Strong, Colin Farrell, Tom Wu, Eddie Marsan,
The Story: An American expat tries to sell off his highly profitable marijuana empire in London, triggering plots, schemes, bribery and blackmail in an attempt to steal his domain out from under him.
The Review:
It took me a while to get to this film, pretty much at the end of its theatrical release, and after watching it, I wish I would have seen it more than once. The story is classic Guy Ritchie complete with all the bells and whistles you would expect from him for this type of movie. The profanity and bullet riddled gangster comedy I guess is a bit specific as a genre yet here we are and I'm so glad it's here. Ritchie's story writing is on point just like some of his previous efforts and I loved the way he unfolds layer after layer with reveals sprinkled in all the way to the end.
There's never a point in the movie where, as a viewer, you're not left guessing about someone's motives or what angle they are playing which I suppose is half the fun of the movie. From the start, Matthew McConaughey's character is the alpha of alphas and his performance is pretty much perfect in that role. Overall the casting was spot on with Charlie Hunnam and Henry Golding filling critical roles as well as Hugh Grant turning in a performance that could see another resurgence for his now long and illustrious career. Michelle Dockery, who many of you may know from Downton Abbey, is equally as badass as anyone else in the movie playing McConaughey's wife and business partner.
Richie takes a non linear approach to telling the story first and foremost through a conversation between two of the main characters that acts as a narrative device revealing each person's role in the proceedings. While drugs, guns, and violence are the predominant driving forces in the movie, there are equal amounts of comedy mostly coming from the absurdity of how events unfold. The director does a great job of keeping things interesting and a lot of thanks should also go to the cast for doing their part as well.
The Verdict:
The Gentlemen is everything I wanted it to be. The style, the swagger, and the attitude are all there and this shoot em up, action packed, gangster movie is a deliciously smart cinematic treat.
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