The Gentlemen

First Hit: A few scenes were to fun watch, but as a film, it was poorly constructed.

I’ve never seen a Guy Ritchie film that I thought was constructed with thoughtfulness and skill. He either attempts to cover too much ground or is more inclined to use pop and dazzle to engage the audience.

In this film, he has to use narration throughout to create, set up, and deliver the story. He hides his inability to write a good screenplay by making the narration of his story part of the storyline his characters say to each other.

Specifically, watch most of the scenes between a dirt-digger detective and reporter Fletcher (Hugh Grant and Ray (Charlie Hunnam). Ray is the right-hand man and consigliere for Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey), the weed lord of England. Because Fletcher is attempting to blackmail Mickey and Ray, he explains the whole story to the theater’s audience by reading the screenplay with Ray.

This is the main issue with this film. Having to rely on this narration to provide a lot of the movie’s context is troubling. However, I will say the way it is done here is better than having an unknown voice over-explanation.

The story as I saw it, was that Mickey wants to sell his vast marijuana growing and distribution empire to Matthew (Jeremy Strong). The reason for selling was unclear and unconvincing. Matthew is a wealthy eccentric Englishman who is intrigued with the possibility of buying this empire for $400M. However, it is a lot of money, and to drive the price down, Matthew engages “Dry Eye” (Henry Golding and a term used for Asians). Dry Eye makes an offer that Mickey scoffs at, but because the offer to sell to Matthew was supposed to be secret, Mickey is now on guard.

Then the story adds complexity because we learn that Matthew and Dry Eye are working some sort of side deal to assist each other in reducing the price, but each plans to screw the other as well.

Adding to this is Fletcher, who, through his detective work, documents all the goings-on between all the parties, which led to the script he reads from. His hopes are to sell the screenplay to Mickey and Ray for $20M so that Mickey and Ray will know all the subversive planning that is going on to drive the price down.

The most fun part of the film is when we have scenes with Coach (Colin Farrell). His group of boys is caught raising havoc in one of Mickey’s underground farms, so he owes Mickey and Ray. The payback to Ray and Mickey are amusing and fun to watch.

Confused? One could be, but this convoluted story is kept on track by the narration scenes. This saves the film from being a total disaster and it also makes it a poorly constructed film.

Anyway, there are lots of side plots and stories in this movie, including Mickey’s wife, Rosalind Pearson (Michelle Dockery). She’s supposed to be the most magnificent woman in the world, but it is only in the eyes of the beholder. There is the newspaper owner who hired Fletcher. There is Lord George (Tom Wu), head dragon, heroin distributor who crosses Mickey.

The movie has lots of twists that are used for creating interest and complexity, and in some cases, it works, but mostly it doesn’t.

McConaughey's role in this makes me wonder. At times he selects fantastic parts like in film Dallas Buyer’s Club and other times, he chooses roles like this one. He does it well enough, but it’s really a role of false, blustery, and cool-man behavior. Hunnam is outstanding as Ray, Mickey’s right-hand man. Grant is oddly compelling as a bad guy. I’ve not seen him recently, and seeing him here was fun. Farrell is brilliant as the Coach of a group of guys and honest to his word. Actually, I liked his character and role the best of all. Dockery is okay as Mickey’s wife and auto builder entrepreneur. Strong is mediocre as the wealthy and odd Englishman who wants to buy Mickey’s empire. Golding is formidable as Dry Eye, a youngish Asian who wants to make his mark. Wu was perfect as the wry old heroin distributor. Ritchie wrote and directed this film, and as I’ve indicated, Guy has little to offer in the realm of filmmaking and his background in music videos is where his talent may lay.

Overall:  Although entertaining at times, being so convoluted the required narration means the story and film needs additional work.

Serenity

First Hit: As a thriller it was average, but as the characters begin to question everything and reaching the end of their roles or usefulness, it became more obvious about how this story was unfolding.

The film starts with Baker Dill (Matthew McConaughey) fishing on his boat Serenity based at Plymouth Island. He, his vessel, and his deckhand Duke (Djimon Hounsou) were chartered by two drunk guys who want Dill and Duke to help them catch fish.

However, they hook up “The Big One,” Dill takes over the pole and attempts to reel in “The Big One.” They get it close to the boat but end up losing the fish. The charter guests are pissed because they didn’t get to catch the fish themselves. Dill is obsessed with catching “The Big One.”

There is a strangeness to the way Duke talks with Dill, and it is even stranger when Dill visits Constance (Diane Lane) for a quick roll in the hay, and then she pays him. Then she asks about her cat.

Dill needs money, and he thinks Duke is terrible luck, so he fires Duke. Dill then starts fishing alone for sailfish at night and trying to catch “The Big One” during the day. Although he’s successful with the night fishing, he’s not making any progress on his real goal, to catch “The Big One.”

One day Karen Zariakas (Anne Hathaway) shows up, and we learn she is his ex-wife and that the son he had with her, Patrick (Rafael Sayegh) is the same boy Dill telepathically communicates with and the audience has gotten a glimpse constantly typing at a computer in some unknown spot.

Karen wants to give Dill (AKA John to her) 10m dollars cash if he kills her current husband, Frank (Jason Clarke) who beats her and Patrick. Dill refuses and Duke continue to reminds Dill about following the righteous path of the Lord. Karen says her husband is coming to this remote island anyway and that she’s arranged for Dill to take Frank out on a charter. She hopes that Dill will get Frank drunk and toss him overboard and let the sharks eat him.

This is the set up for the film’s story, and it takes a while for it to gel.

In the meantime, there are plenty of hints for the audience about the surrealism of this story. These hints include the bar tender’s actions and words, the silent old man sitting at the table in the bar, the fishing store proprietor always saying everyone knows everything about everybody, Constance and the way she acts, and a new character who sells electronic fish finders, Reid Miller (Jeremy Strong). These hints include oddly controlled dialogue, references to being on this island and nowhere near a mainland, Reid walking around in a suit, the traffic light dance Dill does every morning, and The Doc (an unknown or seen character).

I enjoyed parts of the film with out-loud laughter, but I was the only one laughing in the theater maybe because I was the only one who figured it out or everyone else was bored. I liked that I felt the boy’s intensity when the film showed his eyes against the computer screen full of code.

McConaughey brought his standard look and feel to the role. It wasn’t anything unique. Hathaway was OK. The scenes where she succumbs to her husband's demands were intense, but other times her performance didn’t carry the power it needed to. Lane had a small, yet pivotal role and was good. Clarke was well suited to the part of cruel husband and general jerk. Strong had an interesting character because he seemed so out of place, and I didn’t get why he was in the story although he was a great sounding board for Dill. Sayegh was outstanding by expressing his intent through his eyes as we saw them on the computer screen. Hounsou was terrific as the good angel in the film, trying to keep McConaughey on course. Steven Knight wrote and directed this film. I can see why he got the talent he got to star in this film, but somehow the execution or the lack of additional depth in the story made it only mediocre.

Overall: The film has its moments, but somehow it doesn’t quite add up to the film it could have been.

Molly's Game

First Hit:  Although a very interesting story, I felt pummeled by the constant voice overs and rapid fire conversational tone of most of the scenes.

This is a powerful and interesting story about a young woman who had a promising career in ski racing, but because of an injury, headed to California to clear her head and ended up running a gambling operation.

Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain) was raised by her father, Larry (Kevin Costner), to be competitive and self-reliant at whatever she did. He was her primary ski coach and was a well-respected psychologist and pushed her with little mercy. There are numerous scenes in the film to help set-up this important dynamic.

When Molly leaves the skiing scene and heads to CA, she is doing it to relax, save some money and get her head together before she heads to law school. However, she ends up working for Dean Keith (Jeremy Strong) who is a small time real estate developer who happens to have a gambling problem as well. To make money, Keith holds gambling nights and invites Hollywood stars to his games. One such person, Player X (Michael Cera), plays well, wins often and likes to destroy his opponents. The games start out as cash games with the buy-in being $10K per player.

Keith tells Molly to set-up and run the games while he participates as one of the players. She gets really good tips from the players which far exceeds what she makes as a waitress and working for Keith’s real estate firm.

At one point Keith decides he cannot afford to pay Molly for her employment work and tells her to subsist on her tips from the running the games. She decides to run her own games when Keith fires her.

She becomes the "go-to" person for holding these card games. She knows that as long as she doesn’t take a skim/draw from the table it is all legal. However, some of her clients don’t have the cash and she ends up carrying them. So to protect herself she begins to skim from the table stakes which means that what she’s doing is now illegal.

When she opens a game in New York City, with $250K buy-ins, the Russians become players and this is when the shit hits the fan. The FBI is looking to see how the Russians are laundering money and they suspect Molly is doing this. When they raid her home as well as many of the other player’s homes, Molly refuses to give up any names. Because she’s facing huge prison sentence, she hires Charlie Jaffey (Idris Elba) to defend her.

Much of the film uses Molly and Charlie’s meetings as a jumping off point for viewing past scenes. During these flashbacks, Molly does voice overs to set-up the scenes. This happens a lot during the film and is generally effective. However, the intense, combative, and defensive way Molly speaks in the voice overs to set up the flashbacks, to Charlie, and to everyone else wore on me and I think the audience as well.

It became almost affrontive and I found myself wanting to tell Molly to take a break, breath and tell me what’s going on.

At the end when her father, Larry, comes back into the picture and they have three years of therapy in three minutes, Molly finally breathes.

Chastain was very strong as Molly. I felt Molly’s drive through her. Elba was also very strong as Molly’s attorney. His own intense nature was equally matched with Chastain’s. Strong was excellent as the semi-slimy guy who took advantage of Molly and got his comeuppance. Cera was great as Player X. His inner intelligence and drive to win and make people feel their losses was excellent. Costner was wonderful as the father and the scene of them during the three-minute therapy session where he will give the answers she’s looking for was perfect. Aaron Sorkin wrote and directed this story with an edge that didn’t quite work for me. The rapid fire conversational tone, eventually wore me down and pushed me away from the film.

Overall:  I loved the story and didn’t like the rapid fire beating I took to get the story.

Robot & Frank

First Hit:  An amazing well done film covering our near future with robots, family dynamics, and dementia.

Frank (played by Frank Langella) has early stage dementia. His son Hunter (James Marsden) lives 5 hours away and drives up to visit his father every weekend. It is wearing on him.

But the real message is that they weren’t ever really close and there is a obligatory feeling to Hunter’s visits. Frank’s daughter Madison (played by Liv Tyler) is traveling the world with a natural “do-gooder” sort of spirit.

Frank visits the library to get his pile of books and to also visit the librarian named Jennifer (played by Susan Sarandon). He fancies Jennifer and there is a hint of this feeling being returned. Hunter buys his father a robot that is programmed to take care of his needs, clean his house, cook his food and try to get Frank to actively use his mind to lessen the dementia symptoms.

Frank hates the robot at first but soon discovers that the robot has possibilities for him and uses the robot to assist him in taking revenge on Jake (played by Jeremy Strong), a “consultant” who is destroying the library by removing its books and making it all electronic.

The film’s setup is a wonderful way to explore our near future, the relationships between family members, how technology may provide assistance, and if technology cares (Can robots feel or sacrifice?).

Langella is sublime. I couldn’t think of a better person to be this character; part time cat-burglar, lost in the past at times, fully present at others and all the while keeping a sense of dignity and fragility. Marsden is very good as the son who cares about his father but still resents him and his childhood. Tyler is great as the daughter that just loves her dad and still remembers how to fence jewelry. Sarandon is wonderful as the librarian. Her tone of voice is perfect when she says; “you’re not allowed to be in here”. Strong is good as the guy with the role of an arrogant jerk. Peter Sarsgaard is the voice of the robot and it is mesmerizing. Christopher D. Ford wrote a superior script. Jake Schreier directed this team with the perfect tone. The leap of faith to robots of this type was perfectly believable.

Overall: Outstanding film and superbly acted by all.