The Gentlemen Review: Hugh Grant, Hugh Grant, Hugh Grant

Guy Ritchie returns to his roots following the stark departure that was Aladdin. The Gentlemen is the Guy Ritchiest of Guy Ritchie films. The Gentlemen is a bog-standard twisting narrative with roadman hijinks, double-crosses and seedy underworld dealings. Matthew McConaughey plays a marijuana kingpin looking to cash out of the game. Problems arise when parties with vested interest begin to tamper with his sale and his business.

Hugh Grant anchors the plot with a meandering, endlessly quotable and downright hilarious narration. Narration is ordinarily a sign of poor screenwriting – the need to tell a story rather than show one is admitting to ones own writing faults – but Hugh Grant’s eccentric P.I. Fletcher is a welcome companion.

Whilst the names that will probably sell this film are Mcconaughey and Charlie Hunnam – who surprises as the short-fused right-hand man to Mcconaughey – it is undoubtedly Hugh Grant’s picture. This film doesn’t work without the camp and homoerotic tone injected by Fletcher’s constant tangents and left turns. Colin Farrell also chimes in as a spry East London boxing coach to really elevate the laughs. Without Farrell and Grant doing what they’re doing – chewing every single piece of scenery – I am afraid this film would be a dud. It is with relief then that The Gentlemen succeeds in being a fun time – a jaunt through a juvenile crime comedy with laughs, outrageous moments and inventive disses.

Ritchie, who also serves as the screenwriter, does indulge in the cinematic experience to a wholehearted degree and that can become tiresome; the film references his old works, not through callbacks but literal movie posters and Grant’s Fletcher is essentially Ritchie’s voice and humour. Nevertheless, the movie keeps a strong pace and the aforementioned moments are swept past rapidly.

The Gentlemen is a fun time without being much more than that. The dialogue is fast and snappy. The action is meaty and efficiently done. And, most importantly, Ritchie is doing what he does best: juvenile British crime flicks with overly sweary characters. So let’s just have a word with the executive that hired him to direct a family musical fantasy set very, very far away from London.