A film review: The Gentleman (2019)
The Gentleman is a slick, darkly amusing gangster film set in London. Michael Pearson is the marijuana king, with a business worth £400 million built up over decades. And he’s had enough, he wants out, and is in negotiations with the wonderfully effete Matthew, played by Jeremy Strong. However word gets out and a turf war begins between other interested parties, including the local Chinese gangster, Lord George.
The structure of the film is clever. It winds around a man called Fletcher, an investigative journalist who appears one evening at Ray’s house — Micky Pearson’s right hand man. Fletcher is there in an attempt to blackmail the organisation for £20 million. He has photos, video and other evidence that if sold to a national newspaper, run by Big Dave, would be the end for Micky. Fletcher is explaining to Ray the story of Micky’s business dealings which we see as scenes, story that has already happened.
However, it’s a clever and intriguing film so, as you can imagine, all is not as it seems.
There are so many fantastic performances, in fact there’s not really a weak link. If I was being pedantic, something I’m told I have trouble avoiding, I would say that some of the London colloquial dialogue goes a little over the top at times, and the swearing, whilst in context, will make some people wince.
So where to start? I think with Hugh Grant, playing the very camp, very sleazy journalist. An amazing performance. Matthew McConaughey as Micky is smoothness personified, only losing it on a couple of occasions, as seen on the trailer above. Then there’s Charlie Hunnam as Ray and Michelle Dockery as Roasalind, Micky’s wife, who’s a long way from Downton Abbey! And finally Colin Farrell as Coach, involved in some of the funniest scenes in the film, one a discussion on racism, which is reproduced on IMBD (contains swearing), and another involving Big Dave and a even bigger pig.
Guy Ritchie is a busy man in this film, he wrote, produced and directed it and probably made the tea as well. He was equally as busy in the enjoyable The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015).
For me an interesting aspect of the film, and I think a credit to the quality of the screenplay is that Micky is a drug dealer. He is a villain. He has killed people, and had people killed — only nasty people of course — yet we find ourselves rooting for him. The script has made him into a nice baddie, as such. One of the ways it attempts to do this is to show a couple of scenes where marijuana is compared to heroin. One, arguably, non-addictive and with health benefits, the other, well, absolutely not. Although, personally I can’t see how breathing anything into your lungs that isn’t air can be good for you.
If you don’t mind swearing then I would thoroughly recommend this film; if you do mind swearing then grin and bear it anyway, it’s worth
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