THE GENTLEMEN

Well, we all thoroughly enjoyed Guy Ritchie’s “The Gentlemen”.

“We”, by the way, were a multi-racial party of 4: an Indian, a Singaporean, an Anglo-Indian & a Brit. And we watched the film in Bangkok, with many Thais & Chinese in the audience, and everyone seemed to laugh a heck of a lot and enjoy the film.

So the casual racism that I‘ve seen mentioned in several reviews certainly didn’t upset anyone.

The film is clever, tongue-in-cheek, and has a super-starry cast.

What’s not to like?

Now, if you had to choose, who are the stars of this film?

I’m hard-pressed to choose a winner.

Hugh Grant is hysterically funny as a sleaze-bag, blackmailing journalist, and is clearly having an absolute blast, as he shuns his habitual handsome hero persona:

Colin Farrell is utterly fabulous as a nice/nasty boxing coach with his rat-pack of track-suited bully boys. And when they all wear their ludicrously OTT tartan tracksuits – too funny:

The gorgeous Henry Golding actually manages to look seedy and shifty, as the ambitious but over-reaching gangster Dry Eye & in the process, manages to slough off his “Crazy Rich Asians” gorgeous hunk image:

Michelle Dockery puts to rest her Lady Mary persona, with a funny performance as an Essex-girl-made-good, with Matthew McConaughey as her adoring husband:

Charlie Hunnam is truly fabulous, as the quiet, reflective foil to all the violence and plotting going on around him:

The plot?

Oh, yes, right. The plot.

Drugs, money, violence, blackmail, gangs, Americans, Brits, impoverished aristocrats, Russian oligarchs. Loads of swearing, slow-mo killings. That kind of thing.

But the plot is actually secondary to the clever filming, to the film-within-a-film technique, to the gritty English urban backdrop, and to the talented cast.

So, yes, in conclusion – who was my favourite actor?

It’s a dead heat between Colin Farrell, Hugh Grant & Charlie Hunnam. They’re all just so damned funny.