The Gentlemen Movie Review

The Gentlemen (2019)

Rent The Gentlemen on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Guy Ritchie  & Ivan Atkinson & Marn Davies (story by), Guy Ritchie (screenplay by)
Directed by: Guy Ritchie
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Lyne Renée, Henry Golding, Colin Farrell, Hugh Grant, Eddie Marsan
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
An American expat tries to sell off his highly profitable marijuana empire in London, triggering plots, schemes, bribery, and blackmail in an attempt to steal his domain out from under him.

Verdict
It's a movie I liked better with each passing minute as the plot twists, intersects, characters double cross each other, and plots reveal themselves. Ritchie has always been a capable film maker, but convoluted gangster films are where he really shines. The dialog is often crisp and the actors do a great job above and beyond their lines to create their characters.
Watch it.

Review
Ritchie's recent movies focus on spectacle rather than story, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword serves as a recent example. The Aladdin remake felt like a nostalgia trip, nothing more than a cash grab.

The easy comparison here is Ritchie's earlier films Snatch, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, or even RocknRolla. This proves that Ritchie can still make a movie in his signature style. Snatch and Lock, Stock are still easily my favorites, but this one is easy to enjoy. I don't fault Ritchie for going mainstream. If every film he made was this genre it would likely soon grow stale.

Matthew McConaughey plays Mickey Pearson.

This is back to form with colorful London gangsters trying to make, or steal, a dollar. His characters are always fun, but what makes these movies enjoyable are the intertwining plots as everything begins to connect by the end. Fletcher (Hugh Grant) provides the plot setup in the form of a screenplay he's trying to sell to Raymond (Charlie Hunnam) about an ex-pat, Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey), selling off his marijuana business.
I didn't like this exposition. It mixes action every so often, but returning to Fletcher talking us through many plot points creates disjointed pacing. I wondered when this would actually get going. This mixes in a bit of unreliable narrator though Raymond is quick to point out what really happened. Raymond is a featured part of this screenplay. If it weren't for Hugh Grant the exposition would be a chore. Grant does a great job and this exposition eventually ties into the main plot. Part of the exposition is Fletcher fishing for more information. At that point it's not exposition, but main story.

Hugh Grant plays Fletcher.

Ritchie's style has always been music video-esque, and this is no exception. While he went more mainstream with more than a few movies, it's nice to seem him back to his roots with this one. This is a bit indulgent. It's a movie that would get shortened by the studio if it wasn't from an established director.

Colin Farrell plays Coach.

The dialog is often sharp, and the characters are fun. The actors do a great job to help carry the story until all the pieces click together. Colin Farrell has a small role but does a great job with an intriguing character. All the actors are commendable, and they've been written with enough detail to make them feel unique. Combine that with snappy dialog and it's easy to like the characters even if they are criminals.

I liked the movie more as I got farther into it. I was doubtful with the exposition breaks, but this is a twisty drama with nice misdirection. It's hard to track all these characters or even know why they've been introduced, but by the end we get a complete story.