Guy Ritchie made a name for himself on the movies Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and its follow-up Snatch. These movies showed a lot of energy, dark humor, and clever plots involving lowlife types trying to pull off a big score while avoiding numerous other criminals trying to do the same thing. I dug those movies when I saw them, and given how dour Ritchie’s last two movies were–the Aladdin remake and the weird fantasy King Arthur: Legend of the Sword–maybe having him try something he did successfully before could be a lot of fun. Truth be told, there were one or two scenes in King Arthur I liked, namely the ones where Arthur, raised by prostitutes and criminals, outlined his own criminal activities in Medieval London’s underworld. They reminded me of the movies Ritchie made that I actually liked.
So, seeing the trailer for his latest, The Gentlemen, and seeing it being a bit a similar to what he did in the past that I liked so much, So, was Ritchie returning to form, or was this movie coming out in January for a very good reason?
After a brief scene showing London-area American transplant drug dealer Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey having an interesting morning to say the least, we cut to the home of Mickey’s righthand man Raymond (King Arthur star Charlie Hunnam). where he gets an unwanted visit from Fletcher (Hugh Grant, playing way against type). Fletcher is a disreputable private investigator looking into Mickey’s business on behalf of newspaper editors with a grudge Big Dave (Eddie Marsan). Fletcher is offering everything he learned about Mickey’s recent problems in a form of blackmail, saying Ray and Mickey can pay Fletcher, an aspiring movie producer, or Fletcher will give what he has to Big Dave.
What does Fletcher have? It’s complicated. Mickey is perhaps the biggest marijuana grower and dealer in the United Kingdom, but he wants out. As such, he’s looking to sell the business to another successful American in the drug game, Matthew Berger (Jeremy Strong), but at the same time, a young man working for his drug lord uncle wants to buy Mickey’s business for himself. That fellow, Dry Eye (Henry Golding), is a young upstart that could start a gang war. Mickey, meanwhile, owes a favor or two to a few English lords, and he mostly just wants to settle down and be with his beloved wife Rosalind (Michelle Dockery, using the kind of language she would never get to use on Downton Abbey). And that’;s without getting into what a boxing trainer known only as Coach (Colin Farrell) has going on.
So, basically, this is very much a movie like the ones Ritchie cut his teeth on. But somehow, at least for the first half, it seems to lack the manic energy of both Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. It may just be that the plot structure is too unwieldy or that the movie’s structure doesn’t work so well. Regardless, the movie is not quite up to what I was hoping for. It doesn’t help that Hunnam, seeming to have something like OCD in some scenes and always dressed to impress, isn’t quite as charismatic or intimidated as the likes of a Jason Statham or a Vinnie Jones.
Still, both Grant and Farrell are a lot of fun here, though Farrell is something of a minor character. McConaughey is a weed dealer who seems kind of like a criminal version of himself, and for all that Hunnam isn’t as intimidating as some past cast members of Ritchie’s movies, he does OK. In fact, there are no bad performances in the movie, but Grant and Farrell both stand out more than the rest.
But really, there is something just off about this movie. I more or less liked it, but it would probably work better as a rental or a thing to watch if you find it on cable. There’s no need to rush out and see it on a big screen.
Grade: C+
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