Gambit Review

• 16th Nov 2012

Joel and Ethan Coen provide the screenplay for this romp (a remake of an earlier Michael Caine, Shirley MacLaine feature from 1966) which sees Harry Deane (Firth) deciding he’s had enough from his uber-rich employer Lord Lionel Shabandar (Rickman) and take son the task of ripping him off. How?  Well turns out that Shabandar has acquired a special Monet painting of which there is rumoured to still be in existence a companion piece.  Firth manages to find a descendant of the last known owner (Diaz), replicates a version of the painting (courtesy of his right hand man known only as The Major, played by Tom Courtney) and the three set off to sell it to Shabandar at a not unsubstantial amount.

Of course things don’t go quite as well as they are planned in Deane’s head (exemplified by a very humorous montage sequence where we see just how well it would have gone off in his head). Instead he has to bumble about and is dropped into various scenarios along the way where Firth gets to display his adeptness at physical comedy.

Firth bumbles about so well that it would put Inspector Clouseau to shame. A stand out sequence at the Savoy hotel in particular (despite having little to do with the main plot) sees Firth roaming between various rooms, getting himself locking in, and eventually climbing around the outside of the hotel minus his trousers. The film isn’t afraid to make the use of pratfall, and even displays possible the best Fart and Vomit gags used in a film for a long time.

This isn’t Cameron Diaz’s first foray into such a venture with her much misaligned Day and Knight with Tom Cruise previously. But she fares much better here with her cowgirl swagger. Rickman naturally chews his way around the sets with delicious invent.

Somehow thought he film still feels a bit disjointed in places for the sake of making this high farce work. Some of the hi-jinks seem forced as opposed to being a surprise. The outcome is predictable, but it’s the actors that make it work. And it is for that alone – seeing Rickman relish his scenery chewing, and Colin Firth do what we don’t normally expect him to do that will make the film a winner.

Steven Hurst