the gentlemen movie review

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Guy Ritchie's "The  Gentlemen " plays like a tall tale, a yarn heard at the corner pub, filled with exaggerations and embellishments, where the storyteller expects you to pay his bar tab at the end. And maybe you won't mind doing so. The narrator here is a conniving unscrupulous private detective (redundant adjectives, perhaps) named Fletcher ( Hugh Grant ), who glories in all he knows about the intersecting criminal-drug-lord elements operating in England, and sets out to blackmail ... everyone ... with a screenplay he's written, where he lays it all out, naming names. Fletcher's screenplay is called "BUSH," bush, in this case, a euphemism for "marijuana," this being an incredibly complicated tale about the "turf war" in the marijuana business: everyone knows legalization is coming, and fast. The end days are nigh. The "bush" double entendre is also present, just for the chuckles factor, and gives you an idea of the overall tone.

The players on board are an American named Mickey Pearson ( Matthew McConaughey ), who sees an opportunity in the languishing English aristocracy, sitting in their dilapidated manors dreaming of the good old " Downton Abbey " days. Mickey swoops in and cuts deals with "the toffs" in exchange for being allowed to grow marijuana on the property. Speaking of "Downton Abbey," Mickey is married to Roz ( Michelle Dockery , aka "Lady Mary" in "Downton Abbey"), a "Cockney cleopatra" (in Fletcher's words), who runs an auto body shop with only women mechanics. (More could be made of Roz and her business. It's fascinating, the glimpse we get.) Mickey loves his wife, and is ready to retire from the weed business. Two rivals emerge as potential buyers: an American Jewish billionaire ( Jeremy Strong ) and a Chinese-Cockney gangster named Dry Eye ( Henry Golding ). The wild card is Colin Farrell's "Coach," an Irish guy who runs a boxing club, who keeps insisting he's not a gangster, although he behaves consistently in gangster-ish ways. Mickey's right-hand man is Ray (Charlie Hunnan), a mild-mannered man who looks like a desk clerk until you see him in action. Then he's terrifying. The " gentlemen " of the title is clearly meant sarcastically.

How all of this fits together is almost wholly in the hands of Hugh Grant, who gives an extraordinary performance, considering the circumstances. The script, which Ritchie co-wrote with Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies , plays around with all the genre tropes, but the overriding structure is Fletcher "pitching" his script—of these so-called real life events—to an increasingly horrified Ray. Fletcher is a parasite, one of those tabloid "writers" who loves to be "in" on things, who sees people and their reputations as disposable, who adores explaining how much he knows, how much he has captured with his bazooka-sized telefoto lens. This "pitch" goes on for the entirety of the film, and so as scenes unfold, with Grant narrating them, it is as though the scenes emanate from Fletcher's imagination, when in reality we are seeing what really happened. Or are we? Fletcher is far from reliable. The entire script of "The  Gentlemen " is really, then, a script within a script, and this is its ace in the hole. There's always one layer between us and the characters.

I could have lived without the running jokes about "funny-sounding names" (it's " Sixteen Candles "' "Long Duk Dong" all over again), and I could have lived without the scene where a rape is threatened. The Jewish billionaire speaks in a stereotypically “gay” way (no other way to say it, he might as well be lisping), and the anti-Semitic stereotype is all over the place. Maybe that’s the point, but it's a tired point. There's much that is legitimately funny in "The  Gentlemen " and much that is legitimately disturbing. These things felt motiveless and cheap.

Although he has always been very very good, something exciting has been happening with Hugh Grant in the last couple of years. As he's moved into another age bracket, and out of affable self-deprecating Leading Man status, a formidable character actor has risen. As a character actor, his options broaden, and Grant has been taking full advantage. The one-two punch of " Paddington 2 " and "A Very English Scandal"—coming out in the same year—is a perfect example. Grant was using all of these other acting muscles he normally hadn't been asked to use, and it has been thrilling to watch. And he's thrilling here, in a role which is mostly, let's face it, exposition. It's one long monologue. But you're riveted by him.

There's one moment where he puts his hand on Hunnam's knee, realizes it's an unwelcome touch, that he's been busted at inappropriate groping, and he then goes into this wild pop-eyed, "Oopsie #sorrynotsorry" facial expression. It had me on the floor. It's my favorite kind of humor, character-based, behavior-based. Because Grant is so singularly entertaining, and so broad (and yet connected) in his characterization and line readings ("There'll be blood and fucking feathers everywhere, darling," he croons with relish), he acts as his own gravitational force. Mickey Pearson may be the lead, but it's Fletcher who gets the last word.

Sheila O'Malley

Sheila O'Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master's in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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The Gentlemen (2020)

113 minutes

Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Pearson

Colin Farrell as Coach

Charlie Hunnam as Raymond

Michelle Dockery as Rosalind

Henry Golding as Dry Eye

Hugh Grant as Fletcher

Jeremy Strong as Cannabis Kingpin Mathew

Brittany Ashworth as Ruby

Jason Wong as Phuc

Jordan Long as Bobby

Chidi Ajufo as Bunny

Steve Barnett as Fishmonger

Eddie Marsan as Big Dave

Jordan Long as Barman

Max Bennett as Brown

• Guy Ritchie
• Ivan Atkinson
• Marn Davies

Director of Photography

• Alan Stewart
• Paul Machliss

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‘The Gentlemen’ Review: Boys Will Be Boys, Sometimes With Guns

Guy Ritchie makes a very Guy Ritchie movie, this time with Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Grant and Charlie Hunnam.

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By Manohla Dargis

“The Gentlemen,” the latest from the excitable British director Guy Ritchie, gives you exactly what you might expect from a Guy Ritchie movie that hasn’t been constrained by studio decorousness (and ratings) or suavely tricked out with big-Hollywood cash. It’s talky and twisty, as usual, but also exuberantly violent (rather than PG-13 safe) and mischievously — or just aggressively — offensive (cue someone saying “Chinaman”). Also as usual, it’s stuffed with name actors who seem to be having a good time, which can be diverting when you’re not cringing. As is often the case with Guy Ritchie, the dudes far outnumber the women, here by roughly six to one.

The actors have been studiously ornamented and sometimes flamboyantly sleazed up with flash outfits, hair product and statement eyewear. Hugh Grant wears glasses (and a goatee), as do Charlie Hunnam, Jeremy Strong and Colin Farrell. All deliver lightly funny, loose turns and are generally nice to watch. That’s especially true of Grant (as a scummy snoop with an overcompensating long photo lens) and Farrell (an earnest, lethal coach with many tracksuits), whose roles, performances and outfits seem designed to obliterate their leading-man personas. Henry Golding, a romantic lead in the hit “Crazy Rich Asians,” doesn’t demolish his persona, just shrewdly roughs it up.

One of Farrell’s tracksuits — a resplendent tartan — is a thing of ludicrous beauty, as is his performance. His character is soft and tough, likes hats and further accessorizes with a crew of gym rats, who also wear tartan. In one scene, the gym rats rip off an illegal cannabis farm owned by a slinky kingpin played by Matthew McConaughey; they record the theft and turn it into a diverting music video, posting it online. It gets a lot of hits. This reads as yet another of Ritchie’s moments of reflexive cinematic self-reflexivity (as well as wishful thinking), much like the long-winded story that Grant’s character tells and that eventually leads to a laugh-killing shot of the Miramax logo.

The story, in very brief, hinges on McConaughey’s kingpin, an American who’s built a lucrative illegal pot empire and is now thinking of hanging it all up. His wife, an Amazon played by Michelle Dockery with the blank hauteur of a dominatrix, has a garage mostly staffed by women. They don’t sing and dance or shoot guns, which is too bad. The kingpin’s plans lead to complications, including from Strong, whose wealthy businessman is sometimes called the “the Jew,” has an unplaceable accent and walks with the daintiness of an overindulged Pomeranian. The character comes with a wife so isn’t strictly coded as gay, though the words gay panic may run through your head.

A lot happens, another Ritchie trademark, often on visibly cheap sets and sometimes with a bullet to the back of the head. There are villains and supervillains, crime and punishment, winks and splatter-happy schtick. In one scene, you see a poster for Ritchie’s 2015 diversion “ The Man from U.N.C.L.E .,” a pricier bauble with pretty men and women in swanky threads doing stuff. Here, McConaughey takes the lead and serves as the narrator but often feels irrelevant. The point is cleverness and looking cool, though, mostly the movie is about Ritchie’s own conspicuous pleasure directing famous actors having a lark, trading insults, making mischief. There’s not much else, which depending on your mood and the laxity of your ethical qualms, might be enough.

The Gentlemen

Rated R for language, casual slurs and gun violence. Running time: 1 hour 53 minutes.

Manohla Dargis has been the co-chief film critic since 2004. She started writing about movies professionally in 1987 while earning her M.A. in cinema studies at New York University, and her work has been anthologized in several books. More about Manohla Dargis

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The Gentlemen Reviews

The dialogue, acting, and story pacing evoke the kind of irreverent, playful attitude that invites enjoyment. Even if, once the cloud of smoke dissipates, we find there's nothing behind it. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 11, 2024

a clever, compelling, absolutely insane crime drama whose incredibly appealing visuals match its complex characterisation and intriguing plot.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 12, 2023

The Gentlemen is another hit for Guy Ritchie, and it might even be his best movie yet. Interesting characters, intriguing mystery, and hilarious bits of comedy make this feature very entertaining.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jul 24, 2023

A typical Guy Ritchie movie... very masculine and as a consequence isn't heartfelt. But fun and with well-written dialogues and interesting fights. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Mar 29, 2023

The Gentlemen is a classic Guy Ritchie crime flick. It combines everything we know and love from him while sprinkling in some new faces and weaving his complicated storyline at a slightly slower pace.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Mar 8, 2023

The film contains memorable moments that make the messy and twisting plot worth trying to figure out.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 22, 2022

In the end, no one should ever take a Ritchie film too seriously. Should I ever read that sentiment expressed in a headline, it just might cure my headache.

Full Review | Nov 17, 2021

Great performances, I loved Hugh Grant.

Full Review | Sep 15, 2021

The Gentlemen is all seductive swagger, irreverent quips and effortless style.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 16, 2021

A strong ensemble cast with Hugh Grant like you've never seen him before. Plus Ritchie proves why he's the guv'nor of the British Gangster flick.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | May 5, 2021

More stars. More budget. Less inspiration.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 29, 2021

Like the vast majority of Ritchie's work, The Gentlemen is both entertaining and almost instantly forgettable

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 28, 2021

The cast is top notch and everyone is on their A-game, and it gives more fodder for Sons of Anarchy fans to boast about what Hunnam can do when he's directed well.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Feb 24, 2021

The Gentlemen is easily Ritchie's best movie in years. Each of the actors, from the big stars to the bit players, is a joy to watch, and they bring the story to life even when the plot mechanics threaten to drive it into a ditch.

Full Review | Feb 17, 2021

London underworld story, Guy Ritchie style, but with maturity and Hollywood faces to reward the two decades experience.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 9, 2021

Sometimes, The Gentlemen gives the impression that Ritchie doesn't consider this a return to form so much as an insistence that no number of flops would dare issue him a comeuppance.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Feb 5, 2021

But it feels sloppily made without a coherent tone and while there are some great performances, they don't entirely work next to each other.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Feb 2, 2021

As rock 'n rolling as the filmmaking is, the story acts as an anchor, bogging things down as it gets more and more convoluted.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jan 30, 2021

The Gentlemen is a crisp and comedic action entertainer with fascinating characters.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 27, 2021

Guy Ritchie returns to his British crime caper roots with this fun but disposable bit of malarky.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Jan 15, 2021

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The gentlemen, common sense media reviewers.

Guns, money, drink in violent, profane Guy Ritchie caper.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The film definitely has messages, but anything "po

Story is about drug lords, but it portrays them in

Opens with someone getting shot in the head. Graph

A woman sensually grabs her husband's crotch. Conv

Characters curse constantly, especially "f--k." Me

Drug lords are rich and talk about deals in terms

Film takes place in business world of drug manufac

Parents need to know that The Gentlemen is a Guy Ritchie-directed crime-action movie about a very cool drug supplier named Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey). Mickey, his wife Rosalind (Michelle Dockery), and his employees are portrayed as smart, sharp, strong, skilled, and generally enviable. Like Ritchie…

Positive Messages

The film definitely has messages, but anything "positive" falls into gray areas. For instance, the movie is anti-heroin and cocaine but strongly pro-marijuana.

Positive Role Models

Story is about drug lords, but it portrays them in a counter-stereotypical way. A female garage owner employs mostly female mechanics, is a shrewd businessperson. Mickey may not be the greatest guy, but he's in a loving, committed relationship. Coach trains at-risk boys to keep them off the street, but how he shows them to make amends is iffy. These rare instances are set among a lot of criminal/dodgy behavior.

Violence & Scariness

Opens with someone getting shot in the head. Graphic violence continues throughout: shootings, threats with knives, beatings, lots of blood. Other violence includes poisonings, long falls, a rape.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A woman sensually grabs her husband's crotch. Conversation is layered with innuendo. Off-camera bestiality played for shock and comedy.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Characters curse constantly, especially "f--k." Men frequently call people they don't like "c--ty." Other words include "a--holes," "c--k" "d--k," "piss," and "s--t." Frequent use of slurs, including "Chinaman." Sexual terms used to mean something else.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drug lords are rich and talk about deals in terms of nine figures. Money is equated with power and style, which is translated into high-fashion clothing, watches, homes, grills, cars, bars, and cigars.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Film takes place in business world of drug manufacturing, dealing. Characters who do cocaine, heroin, meth are considered lowly, stupid, classless, but pot is considered good, and an argument is made a couple of times that it's harmless. A joint is rolled on camera. All the rich men smoke cigars, often in moments of power and bonding. Several scenes take place in a bar with "Gritchie" (for "Guy Ritchie") beer on tap, and characters regularly drink beer and hard liquor.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Gentlemen is a Guy Ritchie -directed crime-action movie about a very cool drug supplier named Mickey Pearson ( Matthew McConaughey ). Mickey, his wife Rosalind ( Michelle Dockery ), and his employees are portrayed as smart, sharp, strong, skilled, and generally enviable. Like Ritchie's other films, this one is incredibly violent, with graphic shootings, knives, beatings, a rape, long falls, and lots of blood. Ritchie's values -- hard drugs are stupid, pot is harmless compared to other vices, taxes are out of control, and if you ban guns, then you're defenseless against criminals -- are on his sleeve in this film, but parents may not always agree with them. The script also pokes at political correctness by including words that seem intended to make viewers ask questions like "Hold up, is that racist? Is that homophobic?" (in fact, there's a whole conversation about what's racist and what's not). Extremely strong, coarse language includes "f--k," "c--t," and more, a woman fondles her husband over his pants, and there's an off-screen act of bestiality. In other words, this film -- while thoroughly entertaining for adults -- definitely isn't for kids. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (12)
• Kids say (9)

Based on 12 parent reviews

Ok for kids

A good comical/seriously movie., what's the story.

In THE GENTLEMEN, Oxford-educated American Mickey Pearson ( Matthew McConaughey ) is ready to sell his British-based cannabis empire and enjoy a happily-ever-after life with his wife. While trying to close a lucrative offer from posh British drug lord Mathew ( Jeremy Strong ), Mickey must fend off a motley crew of gangsters who want a piece of the action for themselves. Henry Golding , Charlie Hunnam , Hugh Grant , Colin Farrell, and Michelle Dockery co-star.

Is It Any Good?

Guy Ritchie 's crime comedy won't be making any "best family movies of the year" lists, which may be the best marketing it can get. After a decade spent making more commercial films like Aladdin , King Arthur: Legend of the Sword , and Sherlock Holmes , Ritchie returns to his core skill set: telling violent stories about thugs, criminals, fighters, and the underworld. He's clearly been feeling pent up, as it all comes out (literally) guns blazing. The Gentlemen has a clever concept, snappy dialogue, creative characters, and stupendous style. In a meta turn, it's delivered as a mystery narrated by a sleazy private investigator named Fletcher (Grant has rarely been better), who's turned the events into a script and peppers his "pitch" of sorts with filmmaking references.

It's a whirlwind of moving parts, but the audience never gets lost in the tornado of events. The characters are all on the wrong side of the law and life, and adults can appreciate the film for what it is and see that crime doesn't pay, even when it does. That said, younger viewers may buy into the movie's pro-weed, pro-gun attitude. While Mickey says that his "hands are dirty," the ultimate takeaway is that coming up with an orderly, principled pot-farm business wasn't just OK, it was shrewd. In another situation, Rosalind nags her husband about having a gun because it's a ticket to prison; later, she's only able to protect herself with his gun, but is still woefully unprepared. Both of these suggest that following the law can hold you back or even hurt you -- and if you're smart, you work around it. They say a gentleman always remembers, but when it comes to picking up trains of thought from pop culture, so do kids.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the role of guns The Gentlemen . Do you agree with how they're portrayed? What's the impact of media violence on kids?

How are drugs depicted here? Are there consequences for their use? Why does that matter?

Would you say any of the characters here are "good" or "bad"? Do you think it's more interesting to have characters who are clearly moral or immoral, or is it better for them to be a mixed bag? What positive character strengths and life skills do they display?

How are drinking and smoking depicted? Are they glamorized?

Why do you think the script includes such strong language? What do you think the screenwriter is trying to say by using insensitive language to describe people? Or the scene where the characters discuss what is and isn't racist?

Movie Details

• In theaters : January 24, 2020
• On DVD or streaming : March 27, 2020
• Cast : Matthew McConaughey , Charlie Hunnam , Michelle Dockery
• Director : Guy Ritchie
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : STX Entertainment
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Run time : 113 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : violence, language throughout, sexual references and drug content
• Last updated : June 2, 2023

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Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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The Gentlemen review – Guy Ritchie returns to his signature style

Another dose of geezer-gangstery made all the more watchable by star turns from Matthew McConaughey and Hugh Grant

T he gentlemen are also the players in this typically class-conscious film by writer-director Guy Ritchie, in which he returns to his signature style: the hyperactive geezer-gangstery ensemble caper or Chas’n’Dave fantasy crime procedural, the genre that made his name in the 1990s. It’s almost a time capsule for that era. Watching these poshos and villains and right lairy bastards, you could almost imagine that Tony Blair was once again hobnobbing with Noel Gallagher in No 10. This drama even features a baddie more associated with an era slightly older than that: a tabloid newspaper editor, played by Eddie Marsan , who is in charge of a horrible rag called the Daily Print. (The daily what ?)

I enjoyed Ritchie’s tongue-in-cheek movie about King Arthur two years ago, and this wacky outing is pretty entertaining too, certainly better than his atrocious RocknRolla in 2008 or his tepid reboot of The Man from UNCLE in 2015 – although Ritchie ostentatiously includes a poster for that last film in one shot here, as if insisting on its neglected auteur meisterwerk status. The Gentlemen barrels cheerfully along like a 113-minute Madness video, and one reason it’s more watchable is that Ritchie doesn’t indulge his terrible habit of speeded-up montage scenes. Another reason is that it has Hugh Grant playing against type as an outrageously déclassé hacker-snoop turned screenwriter who reckons he has the goods on a drug baron, Mickey Pearson (played by Matthew McConaughey), and attempts to blackmail him into stumping up the cash to produce his film based on this mobster’s dirty dealings.

Grant’s Fletcher, a dodgy long-lens journo creep (somehow Grant is always amusingly venal whenever he wears aviator shades, as he does here), turns up at the sumptuous pad occupied by Raymond (Charlie Hunnam), the tough factotum working for Mickey. Fletcher is brandishing his script and claiming to know everything that’s been going on, starting with Mickey’s long-standing arrangement with a dozen or so lordly proprietors of landed estates to establish gigantic underground weed farms beneath their rolling acres.

But Mickey and his lady wife, Rosalind (Michelle Dockery) – to whom he is devoted – are thinking of getting out of the business, which has brought a number of rivals sniffing around to buy up the going concern, while intent on driving the sale price down with their menacing attitudes. One is fellow American Matthew Berger, played by Jeremy Strong, but this placeholder role doesn’t allow the actor to show us anything like the brilliance he had as Kendall Roy in the HBO TV series Succession . Another potential buyer is the pushy youngster Dry Eye, played by Henry Golding. The complicated and rackety game of move and countermove is further complicated by the involvement of a criminally inclined boxing coach called Coach, entertainingly played by Colin Farrell – another typically Ritchiesque character.

As so often in the past, the plot unfolds in the form of a series of extended wild-eyed anecdotes, the sort of stories that used to get told excitably in the 1990s in London’s Groucho club at three in the morning, with guys vanishing off to the toilets in pairs and returning in animated high spirits, keen to produce another cockney crime film. There are some nice lines: on being told that guns are illegal in the UK, one character shrugs: “In France, it’s illegal to call a pig Napoleon, but try and stop me.” And Raymond is unimpressed by a would-be thief’s intention to “lift” something: “You couldn’t ‘lift’ a wheel of cheese.” Ritchie has made an entertaining return to his mockney roots.

• Crime films
• Guy Ritchie
• Matthew McConaughey
• Michelle Dockery
• Colin Farrell

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The gentlemen review: a wildly clever & stylish ride from guy ritchie.

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Director Guy Ritchie made a name for himself in Hollywood with the slick action and clever humor of his earliest films,  Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch . Though Ritchie evolved from crime comedies to tackle more well-known properties like Sherlock Holmes , The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and, most recently, Disney's live-action Aladdin movie, he now returns to the gangster flicks on which he cut his teeth. Ritchie's latest is The Gentlemen , about an American expat in London turned marijuana kingpin who's looking to get out of the game. Ritchie delivers his signature blend of humor and action in spades in The Gentlemen , with a wildly clever script and uproariously entertaining comedy.

Ritchie, who wrote and directed The Gentlemen , employs a clever framing device to tell the story of Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey), who's looking to sell his marijuana empire to fellow American expat Matthew Berger (Jeremy Strong). The movie kicks off with a promise of bloodshed, then pivots to investigative reporter Fletcher (Hugh Grant) telling the story to Mickey's right-hand man Raymond (Charlie Hunnam). Fletcher has a flare for the dramatic as he spins the tale of the newspaper editor Dave (Eddie Marsan) who wants to take Mickey down, as well as the rival gangster Dry Eye (Henry Golding), who also wants to buy Mickey's business. It's an exceptionally convoluted, if engaging plot that's helpfully broken up by little interactions between Fletcher and Raymond, which help to further set up Ritchie's big third act twists - of which there are many.

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The Gentlemen script features a rare blend of smartly woven mystery and drama, with Ritchie setting the stakes high in the very first scene of the movie, then paying it off over the course of Fletcher's story and what happens after Fletcher finishes. But it's clear that Ritchie had plenty of fun writing many of the lines, just as it's clear the cast had a blast delivering them. Michelle Dockery, who plays Mickey's wife Rosalind, has some of the best line readings in the movie, including this gem: "There's fuckery afoot." The rhythm of the movie's script and the cast's genuine enthusiasm for the lines help to propel it forward when The Gentlemen gets too wrapped up in itself. There are sure to be moments when even the most sophisticated moviegoer loses the plot, and Ritchie's script is sometimes too clever for its own good. But The Gentlemen manages to dig itself out of every hole, even if it's done inelegantly at times and, on the whole, the movie makes for an entertaining ride.

Still, for all the clever ideas and plot twists Ritchie employs to surprise  The Gentlemen viewers, the movie is also riddled with eye-rollingly outdated cliches. Much of the characterization of Dry Eye and the leader of his East Asian crime syndicate, Lord George (Tom Wu), paints both as Mickey's morally inferior rival crime lords. Where Mickey only deals in the non-deadly product of marijuana, Lord George deals in cocaine, heroine and human trafficking. And where Mickey is sophisticated, moving amidst the London gentry, Dry Eye is brash and vulgar, and at one point, attempts to rape one of the female characters - because apparently it's 2020 and filmmakers are still using rape/attempted rape as a lazy way of telling audiences a male character is bad. The dichotomy of Ritchie's smartly plotted story and these trite cliches is frustrating and will inevitably, and understandably, turn off many viewers.

For those that persevere, there is an entertaining gangster film at the heart of The Gentlemen . There's a frenetic energy to Ritchie's movie that comes in part from his directing style, and part from the cast's clear enjoyment of bringing the film to life. Though the movie is built around McConaughey's charming Mickey, and he works well enough as the central pillar, Grant and Hunnam are the real stars, having to deliver much of the story beats in a way that's both engaging and understandable. Thankfully, the two actors play off each other ridiculously well, with Grant giving a bawdy and hilarious performance as the slimy (and racist) Fletcher, while Hunnam plays the calm and commanding Raymond. The rest of the cast is similarly entertaining, excellently pulling off even the toughest of lines and scenes in Ritchie's script while making it look deceptively easy. Altogether, it makes for a wild ride in The Gentlemen that will hook viewers early and keep them laughing and guessing at what Ritchie has in store.

Ultimately, The Gentlemen won't be for everyone, but those that enjoy Ritchie's particular style will find plenty to love. The explicit and implicit sexism and racism will be enough to turn off some viewers, and the film's cliches will come off as all the more stale when compared to the otherwise clever script. Still, Ritchie and his cast are clearly having fun in his return to crime comedies, enough to buoy The Gentlemen amid its rougher moments. Since The Gentlemen is such a fast-paced romp, with Ritchie's frenetic energy propelling it forward, it's able to keep viewers hooked on the unfolding story, delivering plenty of slick action and clever humor along the way. With such a complicated plot, The Gentlemen may even warrant repeat viewings and thankfully, it's fun, entertaining and stylish enough to make make further trips to the theater well worth it.

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The Gentlemen  is now playing in U.S. theaters. It is 113 minutes long and rated R for violence, language throughout, sexual references and drug content.

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‘the gentlemen’: film review.

Guy Ritchie revisits his London gangster-comedy roots in 'The Gentlemen,' with Hugh Grant, Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam and Colin Farrell among those caught up in the complicated sale of a drug empire.

By Stephen Dalton

Stephen Dalton

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Guy Ritchie ‘s new action comedy  The Gentlemen  returns the 51-year-old writer-director to the stylized London gangster milieu where he first made his name two decades ago with  Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels , only this time he brings the slickness and swagger he accumulated during his hit-and-miss Hollywood career, including this year’s billion-dollar smash  Aladdin . Featuring a stellar ensemble cast headed by Matthew McConaughey , Hugh Grant , Charlie Hunnam , Michelle Dockery and Colin Farrell , Ritchie’s homecoming is a fairly familiar affair, but also refreshingly funny and deftly plotted, with more witty lines and less boorish machismo than his early work. Violence still plays a key role, but mostly occurs offscreen, and the body count is surprisingly low.

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First conceived a decade ago,  The Gentlemen  allows Ritchie to revisit that lurid fantasy version of Britain that has long been his comfort zone, where the English upper classes trade vice and villainy with criminal lowlife. While viewers may struggle to discern much dramatic depth or emotional maturity in this live-action Looney Tunes cartoon, it is certainly a guilty pleasure for the festive season, despite the occasional convoluted twist and off-color joke. It opens in U.K. theaters Jan. 1, with STX Films launching the pic Jan. 24 in the U.S.

Release date: Jan 24, 2020

The beating comic heart of  The Gentlemen  is Grant, archly cast against type as Fletcher, a sleazy private investigator who makes a living digging up dirt on the rich and shameless for his crooked tabloid paymasters. Sporting a goatee, thick-rimmed glasses and a deliciously silly cockney accent, the aging matinee idol appears to be channeling prime-time Michael Caine here, but with an edge of camp menace behind his jovial surface cool. His casting is a particularly acute audience-winking joke, since Grant has spent much of the past decade as a high-profile campaigner against gossip-chasing, phone-hacking newspapers in the U.K. He weighs up every wry line with relish, and Ritchie makes strong use of his deadpan comic talents.

In his early career, Ritchie was sometimes dismissed as a low-rent British Tarantino. The parallels were arguable then, but they make much more sense here. In common with most Tarantino films,  The Gentlemen  is soundtracked by a mixtape of pop classics old and new while the script is larded with verbose, discursive, highly mannered dialogue. One sequence, featuring a mobster locked in a car trunk, feels like a direct Tarantino homage. Running with the conceit that Fletcher is pitching this entire story as a movie script, the screenplay is also loaded with self-referential film jokes, including allusions to Francis Ford Coppola’s  The Conversation  and John Mackenzie’s cult 1980 London gangster classic,  The Long Good Friday . The poster for Ritchie’s own  The Man From U.N.C.L.E.  even gets an audience-nudging cameo.

Ritchie frames the film’s time-jumping, crazy-paving plot inside an extended duologue between Fletcher and Raymond (Hunnam), the wily lieutenant to Mickey Pearson (McConaughey), a suavely ruthless American expat who discovered his true vocation as a drug dealer while studying at Oxford. Over the subsequent 20 years, Pearson built a nationwide marijuana empire by cutting lucrative private deals with impoverished British aristocrats, topping up their leaking family fortunes in return for hiding his vast cannabis plantations on their country estates.

Now a moneyed, middle-aged, well-connected businessman married to cockney ice queen Rosalind (Dockery), Pearson is craving the quiet life and planning to sell off his vast drugs empire for a hefty retirement fee. But the deal is threatened by the shifty power play between would-be buyer Berger ( Jeremy Strong ) and his brutally ambitious Chinese rival Dry Eye ( Henry Golding ), not to mention a colorful Dickensian chorus of artful dodgers, boxers, rappers, junkie rock stars and murderous Russian oligarchs. With friends and enemies in high places, Pearson is also a juicy target for vengeful tabloid editor Big Dave (Eddie Marsan). Which is where Grant’s sleazy private eye comes in, playing a high-stakes game of blackmail and double cross.

A reliably mirthsome character comedy whenever Grant is onscreen,  The Gentleman  runs out of fizz a little in its action-heavy latter half. Farrell’s supporting role as a kind-hearted, two-fisted boxing coach veers a little too far into zany cartoon, even by the simplistic standards of Ritchie World. A farcical episode about enforced sex between a man and a pig also misses the target, not least because that plot has already featured in an episode of  Black Mirror .

Peppered with F-bombs and C-bombs, the film’s undercurrent of knowingly non-woke humor is also slightly grating: weak jokes about Chinese people having comically rude names and mixing up English vowels, for example, or a digression on whether it is racist to call somebody a “black c—.” These nagging details feel more lazy than wilfully offensive, but they are still oddly out of place in a film set in multicultural 21st century London. All the same,  The Gentlemen  is too cheerfully shallow to merit much serious critique. Overall, it fulfills its primary function as an effortlessly entertaining caper, with Ritchie and Grant both doing their funniest work in years.

Production company: Miramax Distributor: STX Films (U.S.), Entertainment (U.K.) Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Grant, Charlie Hunnam, Colin Farrell, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Eddie Marsan Director-screenwriter: Guy Ritchie Producers: Guy Ritchie, Ivan Atkinson, Bill Block Cinematographer: Alan Stewart Editor: James Herbert Music: Christopher Benstead

Rated R, 113 minutes

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