Review: THE GENTLEMEN is a mostly welcome return to Guy Ritchie’s violent and visceral filmmaking

Guy Ritchie has returned to the underworld. After cashing what must have been a massive paycheck for directing Disney’s $1 billion+ grossing Aladdin remake last year, the UK director has circled back to the thieves and miscreants that made up his earlier films like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch with the star-studded violent crime caper The Gentlemen. Once again playing fast and loose with timelines and perspectives, the film is a great showcase for the kinetic storytelling and editing of Richie’s best work, even as the over-stuffed story gets bogged down and nasty.

The Gentlemen centers on Michael “Mickey” Pearson (Matthew McConaughey), an American ex-pat living in the UK who is ready to embrace mainstream living by giving up his vast marijuana empire, which has become an incredibly valuable growing and distribution business due to Pearson’s contacts with the upper crust of UK society. Meanwhile, his trusty employee Ray (Charlie Hunnam) is confronted by a stealthy journalist named Fletcher (Hugh Grant) in his home with an ultimatum; he will publish all the details of Pearson’s dealings unless Ray can come up with a massive pay-off to keep his mouth shut. Their protracted conversations form the backbone of the film, with Fletcher breathlessly revealing all he knows, while also providing narration throughout the film’s head-spinning number of characters, sub-plots and time jumps.

While Mickey is hoping to sell off his business to a fellow American investor named Matthew (Succession‘s Jeremy Strong), other segments of the UK underworld would rather have it for themselves, including a Chinese gang led by “Dry Eye” (Henry Golding), and a group of social media teenagers in tracksuits who train at the martial arts dojo run by the man they only refer to as “Coach” (Colin Farrell). Alongside Mickey’s Cockey wife Rosalind (the great Michelle Dockery of Downton Abbey), Ritchie sets the scene for a chaotic ride as all of these ruthless and violent characters scheme and fight to get a piece of Mickey’s highly lucrative drug trade.

There is so much going on in The Gentlemen that it almost feels a season’s worth of TV plotting crammed into a 2-hour movie, like Narcos set in the modern-day UK. While the plot may run away from viewers not 100% dialled in, the entire cast at least seems to be having a bast, from the frenetic Hugh Grant performance to Colin Farrell as the rapid-fire wisecracking Coach trying to reign in his Millenial disciples.

The Gentlemen flies along at a sometimes disorienting clip, with Ritchie cutting between multiple characters and moments in time at the drop of a hat. Like any great crime caper, there are numerous deceptions and surprises along the way, including an eye-rolling bit of meta wonkery when a character has a meeting at the offices of Miramax (the real-life distributor of the film).

While The Gentlemen is certainly an entertaining ride with a great cast, it sometimes comes across like a greatest hits collection of references to Ritchie’s earlier films. It often feels dated, especially when it comes to stereotypes; there is a disappointing reoccurring bit about the pronunciation of an Asian character’s name that feels wildly out-of-touch with the current era. That may be down to Ritchie trying to show how out of step with the times these characters are, but given its prominent placement in the trailer, it comes across as needlessly tone-deaf. That caveat aside, The Gentleman is mostly a rollicking good time, with some of Hollywood’s heaviest hitters tearing into their genre roles with gusto. It may feel like a lost artifact from the 90s, but it’s still great to see Ritchie getting his hands dirty again.

The Gentlemen is in theatres now.