The Gentlemen - Movie Review

Critics Score -  7 of 10

General Audience Score - 8 of 10

Blackmail: the action, treated as a criminal offense, of demanding payment or another benefit from someone in return for not revealing compromising or damaging information about them.

When you combine this concept with nefarious individuals capable of all types of heinous activities, you’ve got a recipe for some situations in which sparks, and probably some blood, will fly. In enters The Gentlemen, a movie that uses all the things previously mentioned to provide us with a fun, entertaining, if a bit muddled, story about some generally likable although clearly not very good men trying to outmaneuver each other for millions of dollars. Sadly a bit light on humor, we are spectators in the seats of an epic mental jousting tournament between these gentlemen with twist and turns aplenty as each side tries to get an upper hand in the game. The film is light in tone as well as stingy and casual with it’s violence, acting as if this is all standard operating procedure and there’s nothing to see here. While it effectively keeps us guessing right to the end, like a poor man’s Knives Out, there’s little to no investment in these characters, but it’s still a jolly good time when you get a chance to sit down with The Gentlemen.

We’re introduced to Michael Pearson (Matthew McConaughey) as he sits down for a drink in a bar, dressed in a fine tweed suit, when promptly a man with a gun comes up behind him and blood splatters everywhere, wasting a perfectly good, freshly poured pint of lager. We then skip to Michael’s main man Ray (Charlie Hunnam) coming home at dark and being startled by Fletcher (Hugh Grant) shaking the ice in an empty glass. He requests a refill on the drink he’s helped himself to and begins to tell Ray about his screenplay that he’s generously going to throw into the deal he’s about to offer him. “You could even turn that script into a feature film Raymond,” Fletcher says. Good call. As Fletcher tells us his the story of his screenplay, we learn he’s actually describing the events that he’s dug up information on and thus the reason he’s going to blackmail Ray for the price of 20 million dollars. The entire cast looks slick and are doing a terrific job acting as an ensemble, especially Hugh Grant, as he tells the story of how Michael, a high end pot farmer, is in negotiations to sell his extremely profitable underground business to another drug lord, Matthew (Jeremy Strong). Along the way we’re introduced to Dry Eye (Henry Golding), an ambitious member of another organization also interested in the purchase of Michael’s weed organization. A group of youngsters break in to steal some of Michael’s product and in comes the youngsters Coach (Colin Farrell) to make amends and promise favors to Michael, almost like something from The Godfather. This movie has a lot of moving parts, individuals, who they work for, their objectives, etc. to keep up with and considering most of them are angling to screw over someone else, it gets a little convoluted in its efforts to keep us guessing, which it’s fairly successful at.

After several games of cat and mouse have played themselves out over the hour and fifty minute runtime, we’ve broken a mental sweat by running to keep up with the quick pace of the film. It’s a satisfying romp with all these characters, though the movie primarily focuses on Fletcher and the account of Michael told mostly through his narration. Although most of these men are behaving pretty badly at times, there’s a human element to most of them, they’re just making a living, wanting to retire, making up for mistakes, spending time with the wife, grilling outdoors and other normal everyday things we all do. The screenplay is excellent, witty dialogue is just another element of the film our brains find themselves playing catch up with as one liners and sly remarks are fired back and forth on the regular. The score and songs the film incorporates are also very well placed and help to set and carry the upbeat tempo the film as a whole maintains for it’s duration. With most everything in the film working in sync and being propelled forward with the back and forth exchanges between characters, twists and turning of the plot and general enjoyment all these actors are clearly having, the time just falls off the clock.  

SUMMARY - The movies tone is so light and fun, this film is never taking itself too seriously with all these crooks of varying caliber outplaying each other, it’d be terribly difficult to not enjoy yourself right along with them. Although the story is a little messy and could use some tweaks and a bit more humor, overall you’ll have a blast with this group of ruffians doing their best to pose as real Gentlemen.