The Gentlemen - Movie Review

Last year Guy Ritchie gave us Aladdin starring Will Smith and it was... meh. I mean every Disney remake is, at the most, just meh. But then I heard of a new film that he made that's attracting attention called The Gentlemen and it was apparently very violent and very much his style. Now I don't know much of his style, but the title and what I was promised caught my attention and I went to see it. While I did not get the crazy violence I was promised I walked out the movie very pleased.

The Gentlemen is a movie about control. Some might think it's about power and how it's used, but I think that real power comes from control. For instance I play a game every now and then called Payday 2 where you're in a four-person group of criminals who rob, kill, and do crazy heists. In a lot of these missions you can tie up civilians and dominate law enforcement to be your hostages and when you have hostages you can increase the time between the next wave of cops and bring back fellow teammates taken prisoner through trade. That is power because you are in control of the situation. That is what this movie does with its story and characters. Even the start of film we get a great monologue about being the "kind of the jungle," talking about being on control your territory.

I'm going to talk about one particular event from the film, so a little spoilers for this paragraph. An accidental murder happens while trying to help one of the people who keeps the weed hidden from law enforcement and these random hooligans record the event. Our main character's right-hand man, Ray (played by Charlie Hunnam), has to get those phones from these little a-holes with his fellow gangsters. One of them however, the one Ray chases, gets with his gang of street thugs and Ray is trying to control the situation by paying with cash for the phone. Now these gangster see the money and are about to rob Ray while he's trying very hard to get them to take the peaceful route. When he realizes he's not in control and they're going to attack him he pulls a big rifle out from his jacket and shoots it in the air. This shows this gang he's in power, but instead of just gunning them down he just threatens the kid to put down the phone and leave quietly. That's professional control because if he just kill them then yes they would be dead, but there would be a lot of dead bodies and there would be investigations and that is loss of control. And this is only one of several types of smart decisions throughout the movie.

As I said at the start of this review I expected the film to be very violent, yet there's not much violence throughout the film. Yes there are a few gunfights, but not that many, with most of the gangster stuff being done through negotiation and spy networks. They even talk about how technology is so advanced now that old-fashion mob tactics don't work anymore, that things have to be done more quietly and professionally. It kind of reminds me of Hot Fuzz, how it is an action movie, but is a bit more realistic like with how much paperwork is done as a policeman. Saying this though there is some graphic stuff in this film that will make you wince. It's just that the character interactions and how the characters move the story through dialogue is much more prevalent than the action.

Now I will say one problem I can see people having mixed feelings elements of the film I think the dialogue can be at times "movie dialogue." I don't think it's because this story is set in and the characters act like they're from the United Kingdom, I think it's just some of what gets said feels "written." Maybe it's just the characters having their own style to them, but even if that's so it did feel like I was listening to some unbelievable dialogue. Now that's not to say it's bad, I thought a good portion of what the characters said was entertaining and there's some great quips throughout the film. One particular one mentions a parachute and my whole theater was laughing hard at that one. However I still feel some of what the characters were saying was kind of ridiculous at times, especially from Hugh Grant's character, Fletcher, this slimy guy who's trying to bribe money out of this illegal organization with evidence he has.

These types of character interactions though just set up who we should support. Yes, these people are selling pot illegally, but with scenes like the one I mentioned before about the phone you can see humanity inside a lot of the characters. That level of care for their business and taking care of others in as non-threatening ways as much as possible kept me attentive to what was going on screen. They had personalities, styles of interaction, and didn't just talked the talk, they walked the walk. There is a sense of weight with the decisions the characters make that make them feel alive and worth caring for. Some are fueled by loyalty, some money, some want attention, but all of the characters you can connect in some way, even if it's a small way.

To add to the mixed reaction elements of this movie however is the story because while it's not bad it can be confusing at times. There's a lot of crisscrossing of story moments that can overwhelm some viewers. All of this comes at you very quickly as well, I was at first trying to catch up and take in what was going on for the first 20-30 minutes. To put the main story simply though our main character, Mickey Pearson (played by Matthew McConaughey), is a massive weed seller in the UK and he's trying to sell off his business so he can go into early retirement. However there's a few schemes going on that are shaking up his deal. Those schemes mesh with the main story and it leads to some interesting events. I think once you watch that first section of the film and you get what the main story is you'll be entertained by what's on the screen because we get chase scenes, gun fights, and tense mental and physical standoffs.

Other than that I found the cinematography, editing, and audio to be well done. Nothing spectacular, but well done. And in the end I really enjoyed The Gentlemen and I think it's a film that needs more attention. Yes, it's a January film, but it doesn't deserve to be in January because January is where films go to die and this film was well done and is actually good. It's honestly one of the best January films in years. The character interactions and how smart everyone was playing their roles just make it a very good film. Normally I just try to see a film on a discount Tuesday, but I couldn't get it for this film, I had to watch it full price. But you know what? I am totally fine that I paid full price because The Gentlemen is worth watching at full price.

And now I'm going to do something new with this review called a "tentative score." This is basically what I'm first grading something, but it's not set-in-stone score. It's just something to start off with before I select a more definite score for what I talk about after a week or so of thought. Or it might just stay the same if I think enough and find where I'm at works as a correct score from my perspective.

Tentative Score: 8/10

Definite Score: 7.75/10

And I've got new review coming much sooner than usual because I bought a film from last year I've been dying to see, a film that I think might be getting snubbed by the award ceremonies because despite being so damn good it's also from a genre that never gets recognized expect for how cheep and "basic" these movies are. See you then!