Gambit is properly old school.
The characters, sets, even the camera work, hark back to the days of the
original, which was made in the 1960’s. Like a lot of
Cohen Brothers films, it has a really
strong sense of its time, and the comedy also feels like a throwback to that
age. The jokes are physical and about ridiculous situations, as opposed to the
self-referential irony we get a lot of today (I’m looking at you
FamilyGuy). So although this might not be a
remake in the traditional sense of the word, the plot is totally different, it’s
true to that age, and to the feel of the original.
It’s also bloody funny, which is
kind of important for a comedy. The plot follows Harry Dean (
Firth), a
down-on-his-luck art curator, who enlists the help of cowgirl PJ Puznowski
(
Diaz) in an elaborate con, involving the copying of a famous Monet painting, the
target of which is multi-millionaire arsehole and publisher Lord Shabandar
(
Rickman). While it’s not the world’s most exciting plot, it’s classic rather
than innovative, I provides for many, quite frankly hi-bloody-larious, set
pieces (special mention goes to the Savoy scene, which is just amazing) and guffaws.
You can probably guess that I did laugh a lot, which is saying something
because this sort of thing usually is not my cup of tea at all.
It’s pretty difficult to say more
than that really, the acting is good, the sets are good, the scripting is tight
and everything just works well - it’s just a solid good film. I laughed my arse
off and had a great time, and I don't even like farce. Go and watch it
basically.
