The Gentlemen

Typecasting in The Gentlemen

Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen is his most interesting and personal work in some time, but still is only a dim facsimile of better films. It is nice to watch and listen to a Ritchie penned flick instead of the Hollywood drivel he has churned out the last two decades. However, Ritchie increasingly looks like a one trick pony. He has a facility for comically roughhewn dialogue and ornate plotting. Good actors flock to work with him and Colin Farrell, Charlie Hunnam and Henry Golding are all effective here. Michelle Dockery is fine, but Ritchie has yet to write a fully developed role for a female. The ensemble playing gives the film a cheeky flavor that is Ritchie's best attribute. 

The role of the marijuana tycoon seems almost too tailor made for Matthew McConaughey and he delivers his dullest performance since Sahara. Hugh Grant flails as a scuzzy tabloid reporter. One sympathizes with his desire to sink his teeth into this role, but he is really only suited to play flippant toffs and cannot convincingly play a lower class grifter. Ritchie showed promise early in his career with his ability to craft genre material. However, his script for The Gentlemen is too self-conscious and derivative. Among British directors, he is more akin to Michael Winner than Mike Hodges. The Miramax logo at the start of the film gave me a chill.