The Gentlemen is a British gangster film that is directed Guy Ritchie and features an all-star cast. The film follows Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey), an American living in England who has gotten rich by building a drug empire. When word gets out that he is looking to sell his marijuana empire, things start to get really exciting, and difficult for Mickey as a bunch of gangsters and new characters that are introduced, attempt to take Mickey’s fortune away from him.
Joining Mickey is his right-hand man Raymond (Charlie Hunnam) and his cockney wife Rosalind Pearson (Michelle Dockery). Along the way they will encounter a mixed bag of characters such as Coach (Colin Farrell) who gets himself involved because he has to help get his clients out of trouble, Fletcher (Hugh Grant) who has come across some incriminating information and is attempting to blackmail Raymond, Dry Eye (Henry Golding) and Cannabis Kingpin Matthew Berger (Jeremy Strong) who is attempting to claim the marijuana empire for himself.
Personally, I believe it’s great to see Guy Ritchie return to doing British gangster movies, as I do believe that these are the types of films that he makes best and is certainly a return to form for him. So if you are a fan of Ritchie’s earlier works such as Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch then I think that you should enjoy The Gentlemen.
Surprisingly I would have to say that it is Hugh Grant that steals the show, which I did not expect due to all of the fine actors in this film. But Fletcher is such a huge departure from the types of characters that Grant typically plays. He is often aloof and at times he can be very flamboyant, but he plays very funny as well, often cracking a lot of quirky one-liners.
Most of Fletcher’s scenes are with Charlie Hunnam’s character Raymond, and the two of them have excellent banter together as Raymond cannot stand Fletcher. Fletcher doesn’t seem to care very much what Raymond thinks of him, thoroughly enjoying constantly getting under Raymond’s skin. Seeing as Fletcher is attempting to blackmail Raymond, he is telling the story and introducing the characters to Raymond as well as the audience, which I found was well executed and extremely clever.
The Gentlemen is a fun film that has plenty of action, a lot of humour and enough twist and turns that will keep you entertained, with a plot that isn’t too convoluted, so the story is still easy to follow. Every character is well represented, even though some of the characters may be featured more than the others, but that is to be expected when you have an ensemble cast. And to be honest, that is only a minor niggle in what was otherwise a brilliant film.
The Gentlemen will open in Australian Cinemas on the 1st of January 2020.