The Gentlemen (Review)
The Gentlemen Keeps it’s Pinky Out While Busting a Cap.
The Gentlemen is a return to form for director Guy Ritchie, who cut his teeth with such British gangster movies as Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. The past few years, he’s branched out to other genres with varying degrees of success, but at the end of the day, what he does best of gritty underworld tales filled with colorful characters. The Gentlemen features plenty of this but also reflects how much the director has grown. His sense has become a bit more refined and focused over the years. Not to worry, because like the “gentlemen” in this film, a nice set of clothes and a classy demeanor doesn’t change what’s underneath. The Gentlemen delivers everything I loved about old Guy Ritchie movies in a way that an older, more mature version of myself can enjoy.
If Ritchie’s films are to be believed, the British underworld is a crazy place filled with very eccentric and very dangerous men. None more so than Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey), an American that has cornered the cannabis market on the small island nation. Having clawed his way to the top of the food chain, he’s looking to retire and enjoy middle age. Just when he’s about to sell his operation, an up and coming gangster named Dry Eye (Henry Golding) decides to make a move. Luckily, Mickey has one hell of a right-hand man (Charlie Hunnam) to watch out for his interests. Unluckily, there’s a seedy private investigator (Hugh Grant) who’s discovered all of Mickey’s secrets and wants a lot of money to keep his mouth shut. With the king of the jungle backed into a corner, you can guarantee there will be plenty of blood before things are all said and done.
There are a few things that are staples of a classic Guy Ritchie film. First, there is a focus on the details when it comes to the unusual characters in his stories. These details have to be enough to be memorable without overshadowing the character’s purpose or contribution to the story (though the detail might be the contribution, ie: a tough as nails bare-knuckle boxer). Second, the dialogue has to be fast-paced, witty, and decisive. A lot like those classic noir detective movies from yester-year where words would fly as fast as the bullets and hit just as hard. The players are all quick on their toes, have a lot to say, but won’t waste your time dragging it out. Third, things always have to go from bad to ridiculously bad. Escalation is the name of the game when it comes to Ritchie’s films, and no matter how dire the situation might seem, something crazy is always just about to happen. The key to this last ingredient is that, while the situations that the protagonists find themselves in might be absurd, they can’t stray too far outside the realm of possibility for the world they inhabit (and they live in some pretty crazy worlds). All this and more is present in The Gentlemen making it one of Ritchie’s best films in years.
The Gentlemen is filled with actors in juicy roles to work with that don’t really seem like appropriate matches at first. McConaughey is probably best known for his laid back, surfer, “alright-alright-alright” persona. In this film though, he plays the king of the jungle when it comes to the British drug trade. However, like any good king, he only bares his teeth and swipes his claws when he needs to. The fact that he isn’t easily goaded into action and doesn’t take things personally reflects a sense of confidence and cool that makes him one of the best drug lords I’ve ever seen on the big screen. Grant is also given a role quite different from the awkwardly charming gentlemen he normally plays. This time he’s a cocky, foul-mouthed, P.I. that loves to poke at sleeping bears. He’s shockingly good at being scummy, which is great because he’s The Gentlemen’s unreliable narrator. Grant’s character pieces together the story as he tries to blackmail Charlie Hunnam’s Ray into paying him to keep his mouth shut, adding flourishes here and there as well as a few guesses. The film has tons of great characters from Colin Farrell’s “Coach” to Chidi Ajufo’s “Bunny.” I mention these two, not just because they are the leads, but because they actually set their parents up on a date after filming The Gentlemen, and I thought that was pretty adorable. The point remains that every character is done justice thanks to perfect outside-the-box casting.
The Gentlemen is as funny as it is brutal. What I love so much about Ritchie’s take on criminals is that he treats them a lot like dogs. The little, insecure ones are going to bark all day and night, trying to demand respect. The big, confident ones have a sense of dignity and class. For the toughest gangsters in his movies, it’s just another day on the job. They have a sense of cool that allows them to deliver monologues in a way that makes you shut up and hang on every word. This quality causes the animal part of your brain to scream that you’re in the presence of a predator. This is a quality that is emphasized through the contrast between Hunnam and Grant’s characters (who take-up most of the screen time as they debate the events that unfolded) as well as McConaughey and Golding as the “little dragon” threatens the “wise lion.” This mentality on how people with real power act allows his films to be so cool. They don’t tell you that they are, they simply show you.
The Gentlemen is the first truly great film of 2020. It was filled with rich characters that kept me constantly interested in every aspect of the film, not just because of how strange some of them were, but because of how incredible the chemistry was between them. There’s this air of electricity that’s ever-present as they constantly size each other up and verbally spar while searching for signs of weakness. While The Gentlemen is as fast-paced as Ritchie’s older British gangster films, it also seems to have more of a sense of focus. He might have traded in gangsters with leather jackets and “toff” accents for those in tailored, plaid suits, but underneath it all, they’re still the same old beasts we’ve always loved. The Gentlemen is as funny as it is brutal, making it a lovely time at the cinema for those with a dark sense of humor.
