The Gentleman [2020]

Language - English
Director - Guy Ritchie
Run Time - 1 hour, 53 minutes
Genre - Action
Starring - Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Hugh Grant, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Colin Farrell and Henry Golding

Guy Ritchie has been one of my favourite directors with movies like Snatch, Lock Stock.., Rocknrolla and Sherlock Homes franchise. But in all honesty, this movie kind of disappointed me. Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad movie. It's just that my expectations from the director are quite tall. He has been on a downward spiral over the years and is shifting towards making more commercial films - Man from U.N.C.L.E., King Arthur and Aladdin were all sub-par movies which left the viewer wanting more.

With such an impressive ensemble cast, I expected him to return to his prime, but the plot was too simple for a Guy Ritchie movie, and again, the audience was left with a sense of unsatisfaction.

The first half the movie follows a narration between Fletcher (Grant), an investigative journalist and Ray (Hunnam) who is the right-hand man the suave drug lord Mickey Pearson (McConaughey). Mickey is tired of living this life and intends to get out by selling his business to American billionaire Mathew (Strong). In walks Dry Eye (Golding), an up and coming gangster who wants the business for himself and is not willing to play by the old rules. Therein starts the chaos which is always a feature of the director.

Like in most Guy Ritchie stories, we have a multitude of characters, major and minor - but one thing which I felt here was not enough time was given to the minor characters for them to have a significant presence. I have a sense that the filmmaker wanted to finish the movie in under two hours and thus, it seemed quite rushed to me.

Don't get me wrong, it was an entertaining film, and the starry cast lived up to expectations, but I would not see this movie multiple times as I have with other Guy Ritchie movies. For me, it was nothing extraordinary.

An average moviegoer might just like the movie, but I really was quite indifferent to it.

My Rating - 7/10