The Gentlemen

There are many reasons to happily hop to your local cinema for a showing of Guy Ritchie’s return to gangster comedy, The Gentlemen. Chief reason is the cast, led by Matthew McConaughey and an extremely amusing Hugh Grant. Throw in Colin Farrell, Charlie Hunnam, Michelle Dockery and Eddie Marsen, all in top form, and you’re talking about what’ll probably be one of the best casts of the 2020—and it’s only January. Also, if you’re a big fan of weed, this movie might be your bag. The film, directed and co-written by Ritchie, isn’t an amazing piece of screenwriting. It feels like the other films Ritchie contributed to the gangster comedy drama (Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), in that it has zippy dialogue and a fairly routine mystery at its core. But it’s also a lot of fun, from start to finish, and you will forgive it its familiarities and foibles. McConaughey is at his best as Mickey Pearson, a pot gangster who has built a large illegal weed empire as that particular plant seems headed for legalization. He’s toying with getting out, offering his empire to Matthew (Jeremy Strong) for a tidy, yet semi-reasonable sum. Wife Rosalind (Dockery), a shrewd businessperson, is fine with him retiring, as long as it doesn’t mean he will always be hanging around, bothering her while she’s trying to get stuff done. Bodies start piling up. Mickey’s farms are getting raided, and somebody in the cast is responsible. Again, it’s fun stuff on a relatively mediocre scale.