Gambit

I came to this because of the Coen brothers credit. It's an anomaly in their filmography — one of only two feature-length films they wrote but didn't direct, and the first since 1985. Sure, the poster makes the film look a lot less art-house-ready than the last film of theirs I saw, but I've enjoyed a Coen brothers farce before. Maybe the reason it hasn't made it stateside is because it's a misunderstood oddball. Turns out, no, it's pretty easy to understand. It's a cheaply-felt farce, replete with broad stereotypes sporting funny-sounding accents and the usual game of misunderstandings, sever…

Peter McGinn

2021-02-12

⭐ 10

Based on glancing at a lot of reviews of this movie, I was expecting to see a hot mess of a film. But I like Colin Firth, Tom Courtney and a few other featured actors, so I gave it a try. I enjoyed it, start to finish. Go figure. Not sure what the hate was all about: purists about Coen and Coen films (they wrote this but didn’t direct it), affection for the original version which I haven’t seen, or whatever. It is no masterpiece but it entertains. There, I said it. There was a plot gap here and there, but I was watching this for fun, nothing else. That is what I found.