The Gentlemen

In 1998 Guy Ritchie burst onto the screen with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Full of snarling baddies, cockney accents, drugs, guns and a hefty portion of profanity. It was a huge success. Over the years he's dipped his toes into historical action, 60's spy capers, Disney CGI fests & Victorian thrillers but he never forgot his first love, the London gangster flick. 21 years later he's back where he started. Nothing much has changed, rough edges have been smoothed, the hyper active camera work has calmed a bit but the fun has remained. The Gentlemen is fun. Fackin' fun indeed.

Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey) is selling up and moving on to spend more time with his wife Rosalind (Michelle Dockery). His marijuana business is massive and everyone wants it. Mickey has decided to sell to a yank called Berger (Jeremy Strong) but other interested parties are trying to put a stop to that. A dodgy private eye called Fletcher (Hugh Grant) has the inside scoop and he wants to sell the information to Mickey's skeptical second in command, Raymond (Charlie Hunnam). Meanwhile a Chinese gangster called Dry Eye (Henry Golding) and an Irish boxing coach (Colin Farrell) who goes by the name of....well...Coach get sucked into the vortex of madness created the pursuit of power.

The Gentlemen is a laugh from beginning to end but it suffers needlessly from Ritchie's insistence on a fractured narrative and a silly framing device that confuses a simple story. There's no need for it at all because there's enough going on and enough of a game cast to keep a linear story flowing nice and smoothly without the need for pointless mental gymnastics. It worked back in 2000 with Snatch because it felt fresh but now it just gets in the way of the fun. And fun there is. Loads of it. Drill inspired fight porn (it's a thing), giddiness over bespoke barbeques, gravity taking its toll on bad guys, uniquely disgusting blackmail techniques, free roaming laws vs free enterprise and of course Coach. Colin Farrell's Coach is a priceless creation and one that deserves his own story. He's used sparingly here but to great effect. A pie shop showdown, the semantics of race, insults and friendship, his questionable wardrobe choices, the poetic way F & C words pour off his tongue, the morning after a porcine encounter and so on. Farrell, as he tends to do when playing a supporting role steals the show but this cast has plenty going on.

McConaughey lays on his usual charm but this time there's a violent edge that gives his scenes a nice air of unpredictability and that famous smile of his is used to fine effect in a moment Long Good Friday fans will recognise instantly. Michelle Dockery doesn't get much to do but a couple of fun moments dilute the masculinity on display. Paper weights eh? Grant's predatory and seedy private eye Fletcher showcases a side of him we've rarely seen on screen before and while he does seem to be channeling Michael Caine a bit too much in places he does well. Fletcher's a venal, slimy bastard and though his plotline takes a cringy and well, odd meta turn near the end he's a memorable creation. Of the main cast only Hunnam doesn't make much of an impact, confined mostly to a kitchen table as a captive audience to Grant's unreliable narrator. The man does roll and smoke joint well though, I've got to give him that.

Guy Ritchie's return to the genre that made him is messy and overcomplicated but it's so much fun that it's downsides are easy to overlook. This more than makes up for his dull Man From Uncle reboot, his godawful trip to King Arthur's times and his mega bucks but bland Aladdin adventure. Colin Farrell's turn is the one you'll remember when it's over too. Big Chris, Hatchet Harry, Brick Top, Mickey O'Neill and now Coach. Not bad company really. Give him his own film please.