The Gentleman is let down by its convoluted plot

It may feature big names such as Matthew McConaughey and Hugh Grant. But that doesn’t mean you’ll understand what’s going on.

After spending time in Agrabah and Camelot, Guy Ritchie is returning to what he knows: cockney gangsters, but now with added Americans and Asian gangs.

Meet The Gentlemen, the latest Ritchie movie starring Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Jeremy Strong, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, Colin Farrell and an endlessly delightful Hugh Grant doing a god-knows-what accent, but who cares because it’s Hugh bloody Grant and he’s a treasure.

The spirit remains the same as Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, as does what you should expect – whip-fast editing, lots of guns and people getting their faces smooshed in.

Plus, that other Ritchie stalwart: a barely comprehensible plot and expositional dialogue spoken by characters you can just about make out. But we should all be glad that at least Ritchie didn’t make McConaughey do a Brad Pitt, letting him keep his natural drawl.

Matthew McConaughey gets to keep his accent – phew.

McConaughey plays pot boss Mickey Pearson, an American who has built up a formidable marijuana empire in Old Blighty through iron will, ingenuity and violence.

Mickey is looking to retire from the crime life, and he’s looking for a buyer to take over, negotiating a sale to another American, Matthew Berger (Jeremy Strong).

But the decision to divest is like blood in the water, triggering all manner of plots and moves from people sensing a moment of weakness from Mickey.

Among those looking to gain an advantage include Golding’s Dry Eye, an Asian mob boss’s son who’s seriously lacking impulse control, and Grant’s Fletcher, a weaselly investigator and aspiring screenwriter.

Hugh Grant is doing some of the best work of his career

On Mickey’s side is his wife Rosalind (Dockery), who could pass for an intimidating cockney Cleopatra, and his consigliere Raymond (Hunnam).

There are a few more players in this game, including the editor of a tabloid newspaper (Eddie Marsan) and Farrell’s Coach, the mentor to a group of lads in his boxing studio.

Which is another way of saying, there is a A LOT going on, as there usually is with Ritchie’s work. He’s not exactly known for his restraint. This is a movie in which Charlie Hunnam is the calming presence.

There is much to like in The Gentlemen including its costumes, several genuinely kinetic and riotous sequences, including a heist that ends up on YouTube, and quippy one-liners.

Anytime Grant comes on screen is a reason to cheer.

The costumes are a marvel.

But the parts are more than its sum. The convoluted plot never really coalesces, and by the time it manages to limp over the line, you’ll be so exhausted trying to keep up with its various twists, the pay-off seems more begrudging than clever.

Ritchie has always been more concerned with style over substance and, for the most part, that’s a focus that’s worked for his brand of filmmaking. Why concern yourself with what’s going on beneath the surface (very little) when you could marvel at the fast cuts and chase sequences instead.

If that’s all you’re looking for, The Gentlemen will scratch that itch, but you can’t help but be disappointed that Ritchie can’t, or won’t, aim for both.

Rating: 2.5/5

The Gentlemen is in cinemas from January 1

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