A movie about a writer who befriends a
charming man and gets caught up in the
man's conspiracy theories.
This movie has been described as
Pynchonesque. On viewing I can agree, but it
is Pychonesque only in the worst ways.
1) There are horrible songs/poetry
2) There are plot threads that go nowhere
3) It goes on far too long, and the length it
does go on for, in fact feels so long that you
start to wonder if the conspiracy here was
mislabeling the running time.
4) Hooks you with a decent beginning but then
that interesting story fucks off somewhere
only to show up in the last few minutes to
remind you that this all could have been…
more .Surprisingly good! Top rate film-making that
takes a free-for-all approach to it's narrative
foundation. More specifically: Narrators
change, and take each other's place, so you
have no idea where things are going in this
70s tale of lowlife antiheroes and high place
crooks; then comes the paranoia.
A Stockholm of 1978 has been meticulously
recreated in this very expensive Swedish
production. The production values are high
and impressive: Great cinematography, often
beautifully edited, very well acted( save for
Sverrir Gudnason, an incomprehensible
addition to Swedish cinema, whose popularity
is only outshined by his mediocrity) and all in
all highly engrossing.
Probably the best Swedish film of the year. If
you're at an international film festival
anywhere in the world and they're showing
GENTLEMEN, it's definitely worth your
attention.
