REVIEW: ‘The Gentlemen’ proves sometimes great actors make horrific choices

Since 2009, director Guy Ritchie has typically made decent crowd-pleasing, high budget films like “Aladdin” and “Sherlock Holmes,” but with “The Gentlemen,” he returns to his roots in British gangster crime dramas. In a film filled with a variety of crimes, the fact this movie exists might possibly be the biggest crime of all.

The film is a jarring depiction of a drug lord (played by Matthew McConaughey) who is in the process of trying to sell his marijuana enterprise to a wealthy buyer (played by Jeremy Strong). The good drug lord has a loyal second-in-command (played by Charlie Hunnam) who also serves as the physical representation of the moviegoer – irritated and mildly confused. 

Hugh Grant stars as the endearing and hilarious, yet spineless reporter who is trying to blackmail the operation into giving him millions more than his editor would pay him. Female characters are used as objects, so Michelle Dockery is solely there to be McConaughey’s wife. Henry Golding is the film’s token minority and racist stereotype of a Chinese wannabe drug lord nicknamed “The Dragon,” and, in what might be the most useless character ever-created, Colin Farrell stars as a gym coach.  

This movie begs the question – is this a bad satire or an even worse gang film? Ninety percent of the film is framed as a movie pitch, which could have been a visual portrayal of a critical analysis of Hollywood with all ethnicities and minorities played to a frighteningly offensive extreme, but the film is not that clever. It could also be trying to express the idea that the legalization of weed would be beneficial to society, but that idea is lost in the desire to get as many twists and turns in the film as humanly possible.

The film is not a complete waste of time, however. There are some career-making performances from Hunnam and Golding and absolutely stunning portrayals from Farrell and Dockery. However, all performances pale in comparison to Hugh Grant’s flawless turn as the simultaneously terrifying and hilarious Fletcher.

While McConaughey is a generally good actor, this film feels like a setback in his career. This is not as egregious as Strong’s portrayal of Matthew, which is painfully overacted and is completely unenjoyable to watch. It came off as an actor who signed on to do this movie, but realized how terrible it is and could not back out. 

Structurally, there are some great strengths and some confusing choices. The choice to make the movie essentially a mock film pitch is brilliant, but it does make it difficult to understand why the audience should be rooting for McConaughey and against Grant. It is not a great idea for the only character with charisma to tell the story first.

Additionally, the opening scene feels like it was shot in a television commercial style. While the opening credits were fun, it did highlight how the film is painfully male.

However, strong acting performances and an inventive narrative structure cannot completely save the awful dialogue. In addition to the sexist and racist overtones, the script is also homophobic with its weird obsession with gay sex, which is played mostly for humor. 

There comes a time when the amount of profanity and metaphors make the following dialogue too complicated to understand. An audience member should not have to have a degree in rhetoric to understand a lackluster film about drug dealing. The only person that seems to understand any part of the film was McConaughey.

It is not just the dialogue of the scripts that is offensive, but the creation of certain scenes are also confusing and unnecessary.  The film’s one tender moment is between Laura (played by Eliot Sumner) and her parents on the front yard is undercut with a vomit-inducing scene about vices. Additionally, the “fight porn” scene is one of the weirdest scenes Ritchie has ever filmed.

Overall, do not see or support this film. There is no reason a film should be celebrated for being this racist, sexist, homophobic and anti-semitic in 2020. While the acting is generally good, every single major actor has had better roles. Ritchie has written, directed and produced better films about British crime (i.e. “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and “Snatch”) and there are so many more enjoyable films available to watch in theatres. Just do yourself a favor and do not pay to see this movie.

CORRECTION: 6/11/20 – The film’s title in the headline and opening paragraph was changed from “The Gentleman” to the correct title, “The Gentlemen.”