The Gentlemen

"You're wrong, Fletcher. Micky doesn't work like that."

Filmology Rating: 2.75 out of 4

'The Gentlemen' is the latest Guy Ritchie film that isn't 'Aladdin,' which means long stretches of exposition and caricature performances.

In this latest gangster comedy that is neither funny or coherent, a billionaire drug lord attempts to sell his empire, but there is a ploy to devalue his empire before its purchase. The blender pitch for a film like this is what if a bunch of Tarantino fanboys all got drunk and wrote a screenplay after watching a Scorsese picture. The result is exactly what you're picturing.

The first half of this film is an utter narrative disaster. There is this bifurcated narrative, one in which Hugh Grant narrates what happened in the past with this drug lord just to get the audience up to par where the film is actually taking place. So after an hour of exposition as to what happened in the past, now the movie can start. The first half of the film is so confusing that I thought Hugh Grant was literally pitching the screenplay of the actual film to a movie executive. It's that confusing. Then after an hour, you're finally told what is happening.

The number one biggest detriment to a film is the audience being so confused to the point where they can't focus on what's currently happening on the screen. That's the entire first half of the film.
The dialogue itself is so concerned with being crude, witty, and slick that Ritchie forgot that dialogue must contribute to an unfolding story instead of a Tarantino pastiche or "homage." It's a film where Guy Ritchie thinks he's crafting this brilliant masterpiece, but it comes off as irritatingly egotistical and self-indulgent. It does feel like an endless series of twists and crude dialogue as if you were playing a board game with a five year-old who keeps changing the rules to ensure he'll win.

The performances on their own are very entertaining, but never funny. By the end of the film, everything does click together, but I found that the film is almost incoherent on first viewing. A second watch may service the film better, but it shouldn't be to the extent where the first viewing was so confusing and revoltingly self-indulgent.

Guy Ritchie is flexing his stylistic muscles in this film, however crude, confusing, and fast-paced as it may be, it is there.

I found the second half much more settling as some essence of a story was now unfolding, but the set-up to such was so poorly handled because it was all told by Hugh Grant in a caricature accent.

I hope Ritchie returns for the third 'Sherlock Holmes' film because I enjoyed those quite a bit and it gives him the opportunity to add a splash of his style, but not too much. Though I found this film painstakingly annoying and tedious, I would much rather have a film made by someone who swings big and misses rather than a filmmaker who makes something like 'Aladdin' -oh wait.

Rating: Skip It

-Nolan