Rating: 2.5/5 stars
“Gringo” is directed by Nash Edgerton (“The Square”) and stars David Oyelowo (“The Cloverfield Paradox”) as Harold Soyinka, a down on his luck corporate employee who is facing a possible job termination due to a company merger, spearheaded by the two heads of the company, Richard (Joel Edgerton, “Red Sparrow”) and Elaine (Charlize Theron, “Atomic Blonde”).
The company is developing a medical marijuana pill and is planning on pulling its development from its facility in Mexico. However, when the cartels with whom the company have been doing business under the table find this out, they attempt to have Harold kidnapped so he can get them the formula for the pill and they can make it themselves. When this happens, Richard hires his brother Mitch (Sharlto Copley, “Free Fire”) to get Harold back, and the film proceeds from one crazy scenario to another.
This film has one of the strangest dichotomies ever put to screen. On one hand, it is extremely entertaining and supremely well acted. Not a single actor in here gives a bad performance. On the other hand, the script is a complete mess, and the story lags and makes little sense at points. The inciting incident doesn’t happen until almost halfway through, the entire second act is a jumbled mess, and there are a million different subplots that have little to nothing to do with the main story.
What this movie lacks in story, however, it more than makes up for with character beats and entertaining performances. Oyelowo might have given his best performance of his career, as he is the most likeable, down to earth character, and viewers just feel so bad for everything that he goes through. Every one of his actions is justifiable, and he’s also surprisingly resilient and good at quick thinking, successfully managing to circumnavigate his way through situations. With any other movie and main character, this would have them be completely helpless.
This movie has an incredible supporting cast as well. The three standouts are easily Edgerton, Theron and Copley. All three of them do such amazing jobs playing some of the worst people on the planet. They are all so funny, engaging and incredibly ludicrous to the point of believability that it almost makes viewers forget about the problems with the story. Edgerton is the slimy playboy, patting someone on the back with one hand and screwing them over with the other. Theron is the corporate executive who doesn’t care about anyone due to her own deep-laden insecurities. Copley is the deranged maniac with the heart of gold who’s just trying to do the right thing, and it all helps to give these characters so much more depth and personality.
As good as these performances are, however, this story is still a jumbled mess. Despite a great set up, a very misleading marketing campaign made audiences think it was going to be a completely different movie than the one they got. The story goes off the rails the minute they touch down in Mexico. While Harold’s story remains compelling, there’s an entire subplot involving Richard, Elaine and Harold’s wife (Thandie Newton, “Westworld”) that ends up having nothing to do with the story. Then, to add insult to injury, Amanda Seyfried’s (“Ted 2”) entire arc ends up playing out like its own movie that just randomly crosses over with Harold’s throughout the movie. While that would work for a comedy sketch, it makes little to no sense for the purposes of a feature-length film, which is very disappointing considering she is very good in it.
This movie was pitched as a laugh out loud, having the worst day of your life kind of movie. What it ends up being is an extremely dark, almost depressing story about being taken advantage of and what happens after trying to take matters into one’s own hands. It was extremely entertaining with some great performances, but the jumbled story and various pointless subplots ended up making audiences feel more confused than satisfied.
Image from Amazon Studios via YouTube.com
