The Gentlemen

 

The Gentlemen 2019

• Director: Guy Ritchie
• Seen by this director: Sherlock Holmes 1&2
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Colin Farrell, Hugh Grant, Eddie Marsan, Geraldine Somerville
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Matthew McConaughey – The Dark Tower, Interstellar, Dallas Buyers Club, The Lincoln Lawyer, EDtv, Amistad
• Charlie Hunnam – Pacific Rim, Children of Man, Cold Mountain, Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?,
• Michelle Dockery – Downton Abbey, The Hollow Crown, Hanna
• Jeremy Strong – Molly’s Game, Zero Dark Thirty, The Happening
• Colin Farrell – Widows, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Winter’s Tale, Total Recall, Fright Night, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, In Bruges, Intermission, Daredevil
• Hugh Grant – Cloud Atlas, Music and Lyrics, American Dreamz, Love Actually, About a Boy, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Notting Hill, Sense and Sensibility, The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain, Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Remains of the Day, Impromtu
• Eddie Marsan – Their Finest, River, God’s Pocket, River, Filth, The World’s End, Sherlock Holmes 1&2, Tyrannosaur, Merlin, Heartless, Happy-Go-Lightly, V for Vendetta, Vera Drake, 21 Grams, Gangs of New York
• Geraldine Somerville – Quirke, My Week with Marilyn, Harry Potter, Gosford Park
• Why? Warmly recommended by our dear friend JB
• Seen: 9 May 2021      

       Is that Hugh Grant???? It can’t possibly be!!! Sleazy, vulgar, crooked PI called Fletcher who talks like Ricky Gervais???

       Scarcely recognisable but there it is. Hugh Grant so out of character. And so brilliant. Fletcher has a clever plan for double-crossing everybody in this gang of crooks. Little does he know everybody is double-crossing everybody, so it gets a little complicated.

       I’m waiting for the delectable Colin Farrell. Ah there he is (cringe), wearing a hideous brown plaid track suit and big square glasses, a boxing coach who only does a very little (ahem) gangstering only when it is absolutely inevitable.

       The multiple narrative is so complex and so quick that you can’t let your mind wander for a second. It’s worth it. Intelligent and witty, it’s a great story wonderfully written. The best line is uttered by a most un-Downton Abbey-like Michelle Dockert: ‘There’s fuckery afoot.’

       Thank you, JB, for this must-see-many-times film!

 

5* of 5