j* movie reviews 2020

The Gentlemen (2020)

If you want tick-list of Ritchie-isms portrayed entirely by toffs you'll get it.

I was pretty meh going in - the trailer tells nothing - so clearly anything I say here is potentially spoilers. This is one of those films that leans heavily on characters - my character-loving cinema mate loved it - they gave it 4 stars. I myself thought these characters were actually quite a let down compared to other Ritchie films. But I lean plot, and this is one of those kinda messy back-n-forth, imagined scenes, never show the full story heist film type plots. Cross-double-cross back-cross triple-cross... cross-cross-cross and I kinda was by the end of it quite cross. Maybe not exactly cross, but I definitely crossed The Gentlemen off my list.

The word cross starts to look really weird when you write it too much. And maybe this is how I feel about Ritchie-gangster films generally? I felt like I'd seen most of this one before, but done better. Sure, there's all the manly-men running their shady businesses and saying their quirky little lines. But where I felt this one wasn't as good was that all the major characters are a bunch of well-off, comfortable toffs. Where as previous films like Snatch & LockStock have a range of cultures colliding in a comedy of errors, this just felt safe and dull. Rich is as rich does. They're gentlemen, not geezers.

Hugh Grant plays a journalist who is basically telling us the whole story as he recounts the screenplay he has written about his investigative journalism on the big drug-deal take-over. I like a smashcut as much as the next guy, but I don't know if I need them narrated. I guess it's a bit interestingly meta. At the start it looks like it will be a more complex exploration of film techniques as they're screenplayed, but that is fleeting. I found it didn't quite land for me. I mean it is a fun casting to have Hugh Grant playing the tabloid snoop.

Michelle Dockery has a few good lines, but she's rather underused. Her role here is basically sweet T&A, wifely possession and secretary. I mean sure, she runs a car workshop filled with female mechanics, but it's just a cute set rather than part of the story. She also gets shafted, quite literally. Or perhaps it's only attempted shafting. Either way.

The Toddlers were my favourite part and I also enjoyed the streety kids at the block.

J* gives it 2 stars.

I agonised about this rating for ages... was I just being mean and did it deserve three? But in the end I'm trusting my gut and running with "it's a meh from me."