Guy Ritchie is one of the best-known directors working today. The embodiment of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Ritchie has perfected a formula that pretty much has become synonymous with him. We’re talking about distinctively British crime comedies with an ensemble of recognizable faces and a healthy dose of humor, dry wit, and violence, depending on the rating. They’re sleek, easy to follow, straightforward, and surprisingly memorable.
In many ways, Ritchie has stuck to the formula he introduced with his debut, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. Ritchie worked on the formula until he produced arguably his ultimate movie: 2019’s The Gentlemen, possibly the Guy Ritchie-est Guy Ritchie movie. It isn’t his best movie — far from it, in fact — but one could argue that it’s his most successful one, at least in terms of capturing and distilling what a Guy Ritchie movie should be. In honor of The Gentelemen‘s fifth anniversary, let’s look back at its legacy and how it surprisingly became Ritchie’s calling card going into the 2020s.
A gentleman always keeps his word
The Gentlemen stars Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey as Michael “Mikey” Pearson, an American drug lord who builds a successful marijuana business by growing it under the homes of English aristocrats who need the extra cash to maintain their costly estates. Years later, following the legalization of marijuana, Pearson plans to sell his massive business to someone legitimate and retire with his wife, Rosalind (Michelle Dockery).
However, Pearson’s actions unintentionally trigger a chain of events that leads to blackmail and violence from multiple interested parties — Chinese gangsters, a band of amateur MMA fighters, and a shady private eye. Joining McConaughey and Dockery is an ensemble of actors, including Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Hugh Grant, and Oscar nominee Colin Farrell.
At first glance, The Gentlemen is everything one could ask from a Guy Ritchie movie. The plot is fast-paced, highly ironic, and employs the driest brand of British humor possible. The entire cast is game for Ritchie’s antics, with McConaughey anchoring the film with an effortlessly stylish and confident turn that ranks among his best since his so-called McConaissance of the mid-2010s. As the token female of the cast, Dockery also fares admirably as the “Cockney Cleopatra,” who steals a few scenes from the otherwise testosterone-filled story.
Where The Gentlemen truly shines is with its supporting cast. Hunnam is the film’s beating heart as Mikey’s hard-working right-hand man, Raymond Smith, the straight guy in all this deranged mess. The ever-reliable but criminally underrated Eddie Marsan is spectacular as the film’s resident scumbag, “Big Dave.” Plus, the deliciously over-the-top Jeremy Strong leaves a strong impression as the American billionaire trying to buy Mikey’s business. Still, in a parade of standout supporting performances, the two that shine the most are Hugh Grant as the de facto villain and narrator, Fletcher, and Farrell as the hilarious Coach, an unwitting player in the story who only wants to do right by his delightfully useless MMA fighters.
Grant is no stranger to Ritchie’s world — the two have worked on three pictures together, with Ritchie playing a large role in this new, all-is-game part of Grant’s career. As Fletcher, Grant is allowed to be as deplorable and obnoxious as he very clearly wants to be. The actor has the time of his life playing such a sleaze, walking a fine line between outright flamboyance (his delivery of the line “Buenas tardes, Raymundo” is delicious) and the semblance of intimidation.
Grant is always great when playing creeps and oddballs (his last five or so movies prove it), and The Gentlemen lets his freak flag fly. For his part, Farrell, who also thrives when playing little freaks, is a ball of manic hilarity here, delivering pearls of wisdom with the same ease he spits biting insults.
When style is the substance
Many people will look at The Gentlemen and accuse it of being more style than substance. In fact, they’ll throw that same accusation at many of Ritchie’s movies — Snatch, The Man from UNCLE, and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare come to mind. However, if Ritchie’s movies prove anything, it’s that the style is the substance; in his world, the suit matters as much as the man wearing it. In The Gentlemen, the costumes reveal everything one needs to know about every character.
You have your jerks, like Jeremy Strong’s fedora-wearing Matthew Berger or Hugh Grant’s Fletcher, hidden behind a leather jacket and tinted glasses meant to make him look a decade younger. You have those marching to the beat of a singular drum, like Farrell’s plaid tracksuit-wearing Coach and his band of merry idiots. And, of course, you have those who conform to a more traditional idea of elegance — McConaughey, Dockery, and Hunnam — draped in three-piece suits and straight out of a Brooks Brothers catalog. In the world of these gentlemen, the clothes don’t necessarily make the men, but they sure build him up.
This sheer style cascades into every element of the movie — the action scenes, the fast cuts, and the booming 1960s-inspired soundtrack. Ritchie is a great visual storyteller, but he never forgets to make his scenes pop. Everything here is like a dance, highly calculated and precise without ever forgetting to look cool. Perhaps that’s his greatest strength: it might be a somewhat superficial idea of “cool,” but it’s cool nonetheless. And for a two-hour movie with humor to spare, superficial cool is enough.
Ritchie in his prime
The Gentlemen was one of two Guy Ritchie movies in 2019, and the difference between the two is striking. The first, Disney’s live-action remake of Aladdin, is soulless, lacking in personality and any ounce of the trademark Ritchie style. It might not be as outright egregious as the live-action remake of Alice in Wonderland or the aberration that is 2019’s The Lion King, but Aladdin still lacks a heart and, more importantly, a director’s touch. On the other hand, The Gentlemen is all Ritchie, purely and unabashedly. His hand is in every frame and every dialog, for both better and worse.
At a time when artistic integrity is a constant battle, it’s refreshing to see a movie like The Gentlemen that’s so shamelessly and honestly true to its director’s vision. Five years later, one can appreciate The Gentlemen as the film that helped Ritchie find his center again following the failure of King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and the bizarre Frankenstein that is Aladdin. Ritchie’s subsequent projects have been uneven and perhaps relatively safe, but no one can deny they are 100% Guy Ritchie, whether they star Jason Statham or Henry Cavill. And even if they all have a familiar ring, one can do much worse than Ritchie at his best.
The Gentlemen is available to stream on Netflix.
