Gambit: Movie Review
Cast: Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, Cameron Diaz, Tom Courtenay
Director: Michael Hoffman
Remade from the 1966 film of the same name which starred Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine, Gambit's been languishing in development hell for a while.
With various names attached to its screenplay - including Aaron Sorkin - it fell to the Coen Brothers to adapt the story and contemporize it.Firth stars as Harry Deane, a British art curator, who plots to seek revenge on his media mogul boss, Lord Shabandar (Rickman) by conning him into believing a painting is a Monet and paying millions for it.
However, to do this, Deane needs to enlist the help of a flaky Texan Rodeo queen, PJ Puznowski (Diaz)....
Despite some Pink Panther-esque opening titles which promise a screwball affair, what transpires is long-winded and weak, with only caricatures to latch onto.
Diaz is all rhinestone, cowboy hat and hillbilly drawl as the Texan cowgirl set as the honey trap in the sting; Rickman is his usual sneering condescending character as he plays the horrible boss to Colin Firth's underling, Harry Deane. And Firth himself gives a very muted turn as the browbeaten employee determined to have the last laugh on his boss, and somehow manages to bring to mind a young Michael Caine (possibly in part due to the horn rimmed glasses he wears throughout). Creditable support comes from Courtenay, whose tweed clad Major is a venerable and respectable turn.
The only sequence where the farce really comes to life is a wonderfully sublime and underplayed piece where Dean finds himself needing to escape from a hotel suite and out on the ledge. But even that kind of old school gag is punctuated with a low brow fart gag, leaving all that transpired in its wake.
All in all, Gambit lacks any real punch, any smartness of writing and any chance to actually care about the self-obsessed leads of Firth and Rickman. There's no punch the air moment of joy in this one upmanship battle and there are no moments other than the dumb ones which pervade a perfunctory and unexceptional script. Moribund and plodding, and lacking any contemporary resonance (it feels like a film from a bygone era), this "caper" is a real disappointment given the talent attached to it and the fact the Coen Brothers were involved.
Rating:
When I hear of a remake, I always wonder why I'd watch it rather than the original. And the original of this is a real classic, which - going by your review - did the "only in his imagination" concept rather better.
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