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Movie Review: 'Gringo'

David Oyelowo cuts loose in dark comedy trip to Mexico.

By Sean PatrickPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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Harold (David Oyelowo) hasn’t had things easy in his relatively young life. Despite his pretty wife and his mid-level corporate stooge job, he’s been stepped on every step of the way for being the kind of nice guy chump that people take advantage of. He’s the perfect best friend for Richard (Joel Edgerton), a cocky, sleazy corporate raider in need of a yes man like Harold who’s easily manipulated.

Then there is Harold’s wife, who is bankrupting him with her decision to open her own interior design business despite little experience and only one client, which happens to be Richard. Nevertheless, things are about to get even worse for Harold when his accountant informs him that the word on the street is that Richard is talking about a merger that would leave people like Harold out in the cold.

Richard and his partner, Elaine (Charlize Theron) have created a weed pill that has drawn the interest of a much bigger pharmaceutical company. There is just one hitch. In order to fund the production of the pill, they had to make a deal with a Mexican drug lord, nicknamed "The Black Panther." They need to cut the drug dealer out of the deal for the merger to go through and they need Harold to go with them to smooth the way with the plant manager.

You might be thinking you know where this is going but trust me you do not. Gringo isn’t a particularly crafty, twisty dark comedy but it is smart enough and entertaining enough to keep you guessing. Directed by Nash Edgerton, Joel’s brother, Gringo is a hybrid of influences from the Coen Brothers style shenanigans, slapstick comedy, and a wide array of comic violence. The film is a tad messy at times but more than enough fun to make you forget the sloppy stuff.

This is a wonderful role for David Oyelowo. Harold is the kind of every man that Oyelowo in his young career has yet to play. He’s been on the verge of being type cast as a serious actor with minimal range beyond being dignified and noble. Harold’s dignity and nobility are long gone once he arrives in Mexico and Oyelowo has never been more loose, free, and funny.

Joel Edgerton and Charlize Theron are perfect comic foils for Oyelowo’s dopey everyman. Both alpha capitalists, they seem on the verge of eating everyone they meet with, Theron especially biting down on the cold-hearted bitch persona. Edgerton is a great heel, just the kind of guy you want to punch in the face. Money has made him arrogant and rude and waiting for his comeuppance is part of the fun of Gringo.

If you are wondering about Amanda Seyfried in Gringo, sadly her part is on the messy side of the plot. Writers Matthew Stone and Anthony Tambakis over complicate the plot with a side plot for Seyfried as the Manic Pixie Dreamgirl for Oyelowo’s Harold. Well sort of, she’s duped into going to Mexico with her sort of boyfriend, who’s barely in the film and who is going there to try and steal the secret of the weed pill in a plot that goes absolutely nowhere. Seyfried simply keeps running into Harold and wanting to help him out like the lost and scared puppy that he is.

The messiness aside, Gringo is so much fun that I really didn’t mind the mess. The central cast of Oyelowo, Edgerton and Theron are so good that the rest of the plot doesn't matter. Even a cameo by legendary bad actor Sharlto Copley can’t make me dislike Gringo. In fact, for the first time since his debut in District 9, Copley isn’t the worst thing in a movie.

Is Gringo a movie to rush out and see in theaters? No, but it will be a good watch on Netflix this summer or whenever it arrives on a streaming app. Gringo is quick, funny, violent and messy in the way that many direct to On-Demand movies are. It just happens that this one was released in theaters.

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About the Creator

Sean Patrick

Hello, my name is Sean Patrick He/Him, and I am a film critic and podcast host for the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast I am a voting member of the Critics Choice Association, the group behind the annual Critics Choice Awards.

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