Guy Ritchie established himself as a cinematic talent with his one-two punch of 1998’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch (2000). It’s been some time since he was as effective with the crime milieu as he was with those first two films. The Movie Mensch is proud to state that he is back in the genre and better than ever with the superstar ensemble-led The Gentlemen.
The film chronicles the power struggle centered around a successful marijuana business, run by American ex-pat Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey) in London. Mickey is thinking of getting out of the business and spending more time with the love of his life, wife Rosalind Pearson (Downton Abbey star Michelle Dockery). She … well, is not so sure Mickey should be retiring. After all, she has her own successful business as the owner of a car remodeling business—staffed fully by women.
Even the mere whisper that Mickey is thinking if getting out of the biz sends shockwaves through the criminal underbelly of the English capital. Anticipating a vacuum created by his absence, a whole litany of characters prepare to enter the fray. Among them is Matthew (Jeremy Strong), Lord George (Tom Wu) and Dry Eye (Henry Golding)—doesn’t Ritchie have the best crime character names, remember Turkish in Snatch?! Almost serving as a narrator, or an instigator—depending on how you look at it—is Fletcher (Hugh Grant). He’s a private eye who has been tapped by Big Dave (Eddie Marsan), an editor of a London newspaper, to get the dirt on Mickey and what exactly is going on with this lucrative business, that is also keeping its eyes on the prospect of legalization coming down the pike sooner than later.
It all adds up to a myriad of plot thoroughfares that intersect with ease, most of the time. The Gentlemen is a film that is wickedly entertaining, but also requires that you pay attention to everything that is said and done. Ritchie is not going to hold your hand. What speaks to the work he’s been doing in the last two decades is the intricacy of the plot here. On the surface, it appears our story is a simple power grab over a drug empire. It goes way deeper. This is a character study of every single soul that seeks to get a slice of the pie that Mickey possesses. Screenplay books always preach that each character in your film should be so rich and layered that they could have their own movie. That is firmly the case with every single soul in The Gentlemen, and I would even argue that Mickey may even be the least developed character in the lot … and he’s the lead!
Ritchie is no stranger to playing with his narrative to massage the power emitted from the actions of his cast of characters. This is firmly the case with his latest. Our story is laid out by Grant’s Fletcher, as the film commences, when he breaks into Raymond’s (Charlie Hunnam) home. Ray has just come home and is about to pour himself a drink when he hears a voice from behind him. It’s Fletcher and he is there to wax poetic about the goings-on of this criminal enterprise and how he is in the know when it comes to those who are seeking to aide in showing Mickey the proverbial door. It’s a complicated maze of treachery and treasonous actions that has every man thinking and acting for himself. Fletcher believes that he is sharing space with Raymond so that he can present to him all this information and escape from this criminal labyrinth with 20-million-pounds (and his hide). Problem is, we the audience are never sure how much he knows is real, how much he is making up and more importantly, how much what he is telling Raymond (and thus Mickey) what they already know. All those elements are mysteriously explored, and answers are not revealed, in typical Ritchie fashion, until the most explosive of moments. Then, the filmmaker has a knack for using those answers as a catapult to more drama, thrills and exponentially complex situations.
Mickey routinely refers himself as the jungle lion within its context of its traditional role as the alpha. Clearly, he sees himself as such. Often filmmakers introduce such verbiage and do not deliver the payoff to make the reference palpable. Given the circus that Ritchie has created around him, it is an apt comparison, especially as The Gentlemen progresses. McConaughey’s able to not just tell the audience that he is the lion in this jungle full of crooks, but as it is required and the world starts closing in on him, Mickey has some major bite.
The ensemble is pure Ritchie and each rises to the occasion in their own unique ways. McConaughey, new to the filmmaker’s world, slips effortlessly into this landscape and manages to play fierce and folly as well as anyone. Hunnam plays Raymond with a devotion to Mickey that knows no bounds, and at the same time, watching him listen to Fletcher tell this tale is a study in stoicism. It is a stellar piece of work by Hunnam, who is sublime and able to turn from faithful sidekick to fierce opponent at the drop of a hat. Dockery is a breath of fresh air that could also slice you open if the situation called for it. She is very much the gangster’s wife, who herself—we could see—could run a criminal enterprise, for that there is no doubt. Then there’s Farrell, who loses himself in Ritchie’s universe in a way that is loose, and very profound. His accent isn’t as garbled as Brad Pitt’s was in Snatch, but it does make you wonder which rock in England this cat crawled out from underneath. Farrell achieves this all with an effortless flair.
Stealing the entire movie is Grant. He has a ball, speaking in a tone that is bloody brilliant on every level. We don’t care exactly where he comes from, just that he makes it through the picture alive. He is simultaneously smarmy and smooth, a high wire act to pull off for any actor. Yet in the hands of Grant, it is a glorious undertaking and largely why this film warrants repeat viewing. There is so much richness in Grant’s character stew, that we must get back in line for seconds as soon as this delicious slide of cinema is complete.
Ritchie has grown as a filmmaker and made many misses as he has had hits. But there is something about what he does with the criminal underworld of London that has always brought out the best in him. After years of making other people’s movies, whether it was The Man from U.N.C.L.E or last year’s Disney live action Aladdin, he has emerged a more seasoned storyteller, comfortable in a myriad of genres and milieus. What he delivers with The Gentlemen is what may appear to be a simple story. In fact, it is anything but basic. It is a complex script he penned and as he unveils its majesty visually over two hours, a palpable power emerges that reminds us what it was about Snatch and his first film that so endeared him to us all those years ago.
Here’s hoping that this is the first next chapter of Ritchie’s career and he takes us down that London criminal rabbit hole more often than simply every couple of decades.
Grade: A-