Posh twits, gangsters, shotguns . . . Guy Ritchie’s crime comedy’s a blast
THiCKER than rice pudding and stewed in privilege, the young aristos of England used to be able to rely on one insuperable advantage — the gentleman’s personal gentleman.
Jeeves, the ultimate g.P.g., could solve any crisis. ‘ Might i suggest, sir,’ he’d tell his Young Master, ‘ that it is ill-advised to wager £2 million on Joey BangBang to beat the gypsy Kid, particularly so if your former schoolfriend Mr Sticky Pete is the bookmaker?’
But there is no one like the inimitable Jeeves any more. instead, there are gangsters and drug dealers and enough cocaine to fill a country house . . . most of it going up the noses of halfwits like the Hon Freddy Horniman.
Daniel ings as Freddy, the disinherited heir to a dukedom, dominates the first episode of guy Ritchie’s eight-part crime comedy The Gentlemen (Netflix). After the death of his father (Edward Fox), Freddy learns he’s been cut out of the will — precipitating a strop of magnificent proportions.
theo James plays younger brother Eddie, who discovers his Army experience was child’s play compared with handling his
father’s legacy. not only is there Freddy’s multi-million pound debt to a Scouse coke baron, but a marijuana factory is thriving in the grounds, and giancarlo Esposito (who played drug smuggler gus Fring in Breaking Bad) is turning the thumbscrews in his bid to buy the ducal mansion.
oh, and Vinnie Jones is in residence at the gamekeeper’s cottage, drinking endless cups of milky tea.
By the time Freddy has bet the family’s entire liquid assets on Joey Bang-Bang in an illegal boxing match fixed by Sticky Pete, Eddie is starting to regard peacekeeping duties in the Middle East as a paid holiday.
All Ritchie’s hallmarks are here: shotguns, hard men with Kray twin accents, briefcases full of cash, negotiations in Mayfair clubs, punch- drunk fighters in back-room bouts, and so much champagne and coke that even Keith Richards might wonder if things are getting out of hand.
Whenever the story threatens to become challenging, captions flash up to explain who the characters are and what they’re plotting. the title is borrowed from an earlier Ritchie movie, though the storyline is different.
the director could almost be sending himself up — except that all his movies, from his first hit with lock, Stock And two Smoking Barrels, have been like pastiches of his own style.
theo James, best known for Sanditon, could be auditioning for the role of James Bond in a Barbour jacket. He’s taciturn but his eyebrows are in overdrive. in any case, there’s no point in competing for attention with ings, who opens with screaming histrionics and just gets more manic.
the first episode ends with a chicken suit and a gibbering, sweat- drenched dance that is both very funny and terrifying.
these gentlemen no longer have the advantage of their own personal gentlemen to save them from themselves. But the word is ironic now. there’s nothing gentlemanly about today’s posh twits.