If Guy Riche returned to the best film noir after saying goodbye to the commercial film genre, "Gentlemen" should undoubtedly be recorded.
Although a closer look reveals that Guy Ritchie never escaped the narrative structure of Two Smoking Guns. It's just that the narrative angle of the story has changed from the bottom of the jianghu to the top of the road.
The story begins with what looks like a successful assassination, and through a conversation between the gang leader and a private investigator, he sketches out the image of a private detective who thinks that Alan Pinkerton is on the upper body, and the process deduction hypothesis from Alan Pinkerton's perspective. There are truths and falsehoods in it, and as the story unfolds, it is actually the usual jianghu world of Guy Richie. Everyone is in the midst of fate, and there is no accident in life and death.
Maybe it's because I'm used to watching Hugh Grant perform in "BJ's Single Diary" bad guy performance, in fact, I personally don't have much surprise about Hugh Grant's role, but I still feel Guy Rich's ability to give this role some of the codes of conduct and even the breaking points of story deduction.
But to say that after watching the feelings, that is, to feel that Guy Rich has converged on the strong sense of black humor and absurdity in the past, more cruel and ruthless charm, psychologically quite complicated.
See Guy Rich retract the playfulness of past works in some bridges, move towards stability in the narrative and support the actor's aura to support a film. Although the dialogue is revealed by the British humor that we are familiar with...
On the other hand, this film is still essentially the consistent mode of "Two Big Smoking Guns", "Kidnapping and Robbery", and even "Rock Gangster", leading the audience into the narrative of the authorities' fans. It was complemented by the brutality of the less creatively successful revolver script and improved the complexity of the narrative.
This makes the plot more smooth and smooth, and the whole film relies on the consistent screen image of Matthew McConaughey, which we have already agreed to and are accustomed to. Based on this premise, we habitually passively accept the story of how a gangster emperor and deputy face a storm on the eve of exiting the jianghu and defuse the crisis...
Although I don't want to admit it, I personally really feel that this film retains at least a little humor and compassion for life compared to "Rock gangsters", and behind the black humor of "Gentlemen" runs through the cruelty of society in the real jianghu, and the warning not to provoke people and things that should not be touched, especially when the authorities do not know the opponent's bottom card.
The film's main male characters are by no means only good-looking hangers, Hugh Grant's stable output and Matthew McConaughey's moody black street emperor image support the entire work; as for Charlie Hannham, as a passive responder to the confrontation with Hugh Grant, he is more like a gradual interpretation in performance than a trader who controls the overall situation and waits for things to end, which is a shortcoming worth mentioning in this film.
As for whether the film retains Guy Richie's usual narrative interest of "you know someone is dead, but the director deliberately doesn't let you see the process and only the result"? Yes, but when you find that these things are actually happening in any corner of the world, this smile of black humor will turn into a heartfelt fear.
Yes, like the brutality of "Revolver", "Gentlemen" completely extends this spirit of "not seeing more impressive" in the performance of this atmosphere of brutality and fear in the underworld.
In particular, the screams of a character after learning what he has done near the end of the story are definitely not a laugh that makes people laugh completely, but a genuine cruel malice.
Finally, the film sets Asian gang members to break into the territory of British gangs, resulting in Matthew McConaughey's brutal retaliation, and this plot also involves the intervention of legitimate American businessmen, which makes me wonder whether because of the current global anti-China wave of emotions, the anti-China sentiment and anti-American sentiment emanating from "Gentlemen" are the heaviest I have ever seen in a Guy Richie movie.
However, even so, this film is still a work that should be at the level of Guy Richie's debut debut work, "Two Big Smoking Guns".