‘Gambit’ is a Gamble

When you hear the Coen Brothers have scripted a brand new film starring Cameron Diaz and Colin Firth, you’d be reasonable in thinking it’s probably not going to be as good as ‘Fargo’ (1996).

However, after watching the likes of ‘Raising Arizona’, ‘The Big Lebowski’, ‘A Serious Man’, ‘No Country for Old Men’ and ‘True Grit’, you’ll sort of feel buoyed by the knowledge that they are undoubtedly talented writers, champions of originality and utter boons to society.

At this point, you’ll need to forget all that and brace yourself for an odd, mirthless and meandering affair because ‘Gambit’ is another remake.

Remixing the 1966 film of the same name starring Shirley MacLaine and Michael Cane, like their lukewarm rewrite of ‘Ladykillers’ (2004), the resultant feeling is quite simply… “meh.”

True to Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz’s respective form, Firth plays a bumbling British man who is somewhat luckless in life and with the ladies, while Diaz dances around in her underwear and feeds him oddball sayings she learnt from her mama.

Together they are Harry Dean and PJ Puznowski, a downtrodden and jaded art curator and a ballsy Southern belle who get in on the business of duping Dean’s awful art collector boss, Lord Lionel Shabandar played by Alan Rickman.

Stanley Tucci plays Dean’s art curating rival Zaidenweber and Tom Courtenay makes a charming turn as The Major who also narrates the film.

Despite this mire of talent, the film plods along quite rotely in the guise of a quirky caper film that aims to laugh at clichés like the unrefined Southern belle and the karaoke singing Japanese businessman, but only serves to reinforce them. Humourlessly.

This, believe it or not, is a Coen Brothers dud. They are few and far between but after a two year hiatus following their critically acclaimed remake of the tale of Mattie Ross, it may be high time they get down to the fantastic writing (or remaking) fans know they are capable of… With true grit.

’Gambit’ is now showing at Ster-Kinekor at Maerua Mall – martha@namibian.com.na or marth__vader on Twitter

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