Guy Ritchie's "The Gentlemen" plays like a tall tale, filled with exaggerations and embellishments, where the storyteller expects you to pay his bar tab at the end. The narrator is a conniving private detective named Fletcher (Hugh Grant), who sets out to blackmail everyone with a screenplay he's written. The screenplay is called "BUSH," bush being a euphemism for "marijuana" and is a complicated tale about the "turf war" in the marijuana business. The "bush" double entendre is also present, just for the chuckles factor. Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey) is an American who sees an opportunity in the languishing English aristocracy. He is married to Roz (Michelle Dockery), a "Cockney cleopatra" who runs an auto body shop with only women mechanics. Mickey loves his wife and is ready to retire from the weed business. Two rivals emerge as potential buyers: an American Jewish billionaire and a Chinese-Cockney gangster named Dry Eye. Colin Farrell's "Coach" is an Irish guy who runs a boxing club. Mickey's right-hand man is Ray (Charlie Hunnan), a mild-mannered man who looks like a desk clerk until you see him in action. The "gentlemen" of the title is clearly meant sarcastically. Hugh Grant gives an extraordinary performance in "The Gentlemen". The script, which Ritchie co-wrote with Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies, plays around with genre tropes, but the overriding structure is Fletcher "pitching" his script to an increasingly horrified Ray. This "pitch" goes on for the entirety of the film, and so as scenes unfold, it is as though the scenes emanate from Fletcher's imagination, when in reality we are seeing what really happened. Guy Ritchie's latest gangster comedy presents itself as a harmless romp, but behind its wink-wink-nudge-nudge humour is a bitter and dated worldview. Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey) is an American interloper and marijuana dealer who wants out of the game. He hopes to liquidate his weed-farm empire, and interested buyers include Jewish-American billionaire Matthew Berger (Jeremy Strong) and Chinese mobster "Dry Eye" (Crazy Rich Asians' Henry Golding). We learn of Mickey's plans and their inevitable unravelling through a screenplay written by sleazy private investigator and aspiring screenwriter Fletcher (Hugh Grant). The screenplay is, of course, blackmail, with which Fletcher hopes to exploit Mickey. Ritchie's signature sweary patter is enjoyable, except for the racism, which is especially pointed given the racial delineation of the film's heroes and villains. Fletcher is a parasite, one of those tabloid "writers" who loves to be "in" on things, and sees people and their reputations as disposable. The entire script is a script within a script, and this is its ace in the hole: there is always one layer between us and the characters. Hugh Grant has become a formidable character actor in the last couple of years, taking full advantage of his options. The one-two punch of "Paddington 2" and "A Very English Scandal" is a perfect example of this, as Grant is using all of these other acting muscles he normally hadn't been asked to use, and he's thrilling in a role which is mostly exposition. There's one moment where he puts his hand on Hunnam's knee, realizes it's an unwelcome touch, and goes into this wild pop-eyed, "Oopsie #sorrynotsorry" facial expression. It's his favorite kind of humor, character-based, behavior-based, and he acts as his own gravitational force. Mickey Pearson may be the lead, but it's Fletcher who gets the last word.
Review of The Gentlemen
