The Gentlemen is an action comedy film written and directed by Guy Ritchie, from a story by Ivan Atkinson, Marn Davies, and Ritchie. It follows an American marijuana kingpin in England who is looking to sell his business, setting off a chain of blackmail and schemes to undermine him. Having little knowledge about The Gentlemen, I was pleasantly surprised.
When Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey), an infamous cannabis baron, who is a grower and dealer of marijuana decides he has had enough of the illegal drug profession, the word goes out that he wants to sell his lucrative business. Several interested buyers compete for the sale. A private investigator Fletcher (Hugh Grant) is hired by Big Dave (Eddie Marsan) to investigate Pearson’s links to Lord Pressfield (Samuel West), a minor Royal with a heroin-addicted daughter. Fletcher offers to sell his findings (typed up as a screenplay entitled Bush) to Pearson’s right-hand man Raymond (Charlie Hunnam) for £20 million. Born in poverty in the US, Pearson won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, where he began selling marijuana to privileged fellow students before dropping out and building up his criminal enterprise by violence. Big Dave has decided to sell his business to American billionaire Matthew Berger (Jeremy Strong) for $400 million so he can retire peacefully with his wife Rosalind (Michelle Dockery). Pearson is later approached by Dry Eye (Henry Golding), an underboss for Chinese gangster Lord George (Tom Wu) who offers to buy out Pearson’s business, but he refuses. When one of Mickey’s labs is raided by some unprofessional young adults, it is discovered that the crew belongs to Coach (Colin Farrell) who is very apologetic. Good luck with trying to figure this one out, there’s much more to come.
As you can see, there are several players in The Gentlemen. As Flecher spins his script to Raymond, you can see how complicated each player’s maneuvers make this an intriguing film. I thought The Gentlemen was cleverly written and reminded me of several movies that were based on a similar premise, e.g. Knives Out, Parasite, and Uncut Gems. This movie is fast-moving and will require your full attention in order to keep up. You will have to see The Gentlemen in its entirety as you won’t be able to solve this one on your own. I was thoroughly entertained and highly recommend The Gentlemen as a refreshing and different tale of “who’s in charge”. As of February 9, 2020, The Gentlemen has grossed $26.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $33.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $60.4 million. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 73% based on 211 reviews, with an average rating of 6.35/10. Check It Out!
There seems to be a push in Hollywood for films based on true stories. Embellished as they may be to make the story more exciting, most are pretty good and add rather than take away from the events that made it worthy of a Hollywood film in the first place. Florence Foster Jenkins (Meryl Streep) is no exception. Some of these films are about people a lot of us have never even heard of. I for one have never heard of Florence Foster Jenkins. I must say, it was my loss. It appears that Florence, an American socialite and flamboyant dresser, loved music more than life. She became a prominent musical cult figure in NYC from the 1920s through the 1940s. Madame or Lady Jenkins (as she liked to be called) loved to sing however, she was known for her poor singing abilities and allegedly had no idea how she actually sounded but sang anyway with the help of her beloved husband, St. Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant), her voice coach, Carlo Edwards (David Haig) and her concert pianist, Cosmé McMoon (Simon Helberg). Florence was born to wealthy parents on July 19, 1868 in Pennsylvania. She was labeled “Little Miss Foster” because of her lifelong passion for public performance, which included a recital at the White House during the President Rutherford B. Hayes administration. At the age of 7, she was considered a child prodigy, as she was an accomplished pianist. An arm injury ended her aspirations as a pianist, so she turned to singing but not until her mother passed in 1930.
At the age of 41, Florence met St. Clair Bayfield, a 34 year old handsome actor who became her manager and unofficial 2nd husband until her death on November 26, 1944. Florence Foster Jenkins is quite the story — you may think you have gotten an earful already but there is so much more I haven’t even touched upon. This is a scenario I’ve often thought of but have never encountered. For instance, why didn’t she know how she sounded? You might wonder how she was married a second time to a handsome man that was so much younger than she (and the bigger question) when she has syphilis? How did she get coaches and pianist to accompany her when she sang so badly? She also owned a night club called The Verdi Club — she made it a practice to never sing in her own club so when and where did she perform? Her last performance was at Carnegie Hall? How was that possible? Who came to all of these performances? Also, Cole Porter rarely missed one of her recitals. She received fabulous reviews after each recital she gave, why? To get answers to these questions, you will need to see the movie. You won’t be disappointed. By now, you can tell that I really loved this movie. Both Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant deserve Oscar nods for their portrayal of Florence and St. Clair, respectively. Surprisingly, this movie fell way under the radar despite it’s great ratings. There’s a documentary by Donald Collup on YouTube and Amazon that tells the true story if you’re interested in a follow-up. I highly recommend this movie, it’s entertaining, delightful and informative. BTW: Florence Foster Jenkins is considered “The world’s worst singer”.
THE OLD
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