The Gentlemen is a pleasant return to vintage Guy Ritchie. After 2019’s Aladdin and 2017’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Ritchie needed a bit of a palette cleanser. Aladdin was fine, nothing special. But Legend of the Sword was quite bad. It’s a welcome sight to see Ritchie going back to his British gangster-comedy roots that helped make his name.
The Gentlemen follows American expat Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey), living in London. Mickey has built a highly lucrative – if illegal – marijuana business and is looking to sell it off and retire.
As Mickey is the biggest player in the game, this sets off a tidal wave of events, as his competitors try everything to be the lucky recipient. There are regular business negotiations, sabotage, double crossing, everything you would expect from a movie like this, especially one with Guy Ritchie at the helm.
Convoluted story
However, it’s exactly how Ritchie frames the story that presents The Gentlemen’s biggest problem. After the opening scene, the movie flashes back to some time earlier, to a meeting between private investigator Fletcher (Hugh Grant) and Raymond (Charlie Hunnam), Pearson’s do-it-all right hand man.
And this is where The Gentlemen might lose some viewers. Fletcher was hired by a spurned tabloid editor to dig up dirt on Pearson. Fletcher was been able to be on hand for – and document – several key events surrounding Mickey’s efforts to sell his business.
This presents a couple big issues. First, Fletcher is the one telling the stories, even though he’s rarely directly involved. It becomes a classic case of an unreliable narrator. And by itself, that’s not automatically a bad thing. But when combined with the second part, it becomes more problematic.
While the characters are all mostly great, there are too many. Or at least, too many that are given too much screen time. Add in the jumping back and forth from present time to flash backs, and it becomes hard to keep track of everything.
Fun cast of characters
But with that said, when The Gentlemen works, oh boy is it a fun ride. And most of that can be attributed to the dynamite cast Ritchie was able to bring together.
Grant’s Fletcher and Hunnam’s Raymond are together for a good portion of the movie, and their and chemistry and back-and-forth is second to none. Grant in particular looks like he’s having the time of his life with this role. And with a movie like The Gentlemen, where it feels like its main goal is provide the audience with a good time, that means something.
And everyone else buys in completely as well. Colin Farrell is consistently hilarious as a boxing coach who gets drawn into the scheming at play. Jeremy Strong plays Pearson’s preferred buyer, Matthew Berger. Berger is an odd-ball that stands out in a collection of odd-balls. It’s hard to actually explain this character, but Strong is supremely entertaining.
In a movie filled with larger than life men, Michelle Dockery stands tall as Pearson’s wife, Rosalind. She’s fierce, strong-willed, and runs her own successful business. Her character doesn’t have as much humor as the rest, but there’s still an air of playfulness that pairs up perfectly with McConaughey’s Mickey.
If there’s a weak link, it’s Henry Golding’s Dry Eye, though that feels more like an issue with the character rather than Golding’s performance. And given the story and other characters, McConaughey is surprisingly dialed back. He’s no less effective, and he still has his moments to shine, but there was more that could have been done with Mickey Pearson.
Ritchie rounds back to form
Even with some story problems, The Gentlemen marks a welcome and needed return to form for Guy Ritchie. With his signature style back and firing on (almost) all cylinders, The Gentlemen is a perfectly fun way to spend a couple hours at the theater.
The Verdict: 7.5/10
The Gentlemen is now playing in theaters everywhere.