Light watching, but dull jokes

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Gareth Pang
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Gareth Pang |
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With a clever script written by the Coen brothers and an all-star cast featuring Colin Firth, Stanley Tucci and Alan Rickman (yes, Professor Snape from the Harry Potter series), Gambit had the potential to be much better than what it is.

The story follows Harry Dean, a London art curator who tries to exact revenge on his vile boss (Rickman). To accomplish his master plan, he seeks help from Texas rodeo queen PJ Puznowski (Diaz), who he hopes will trick his billionaire boss into buying a fake Monet painting.

As you might expect, nothing goes according to Harry'splan.

The presence of cartoonish characters is one of the core elements for a screwball comedy like Gambit. But it is lazy to rely so heavily on dull stereotypes of different nationalities, leaving us with predictable jokes which only manage to raise a few smiles every now and again.

Comedy seems to be a genre that is out of Firth's range. His performance is weary at best, and he couldn't quite pull off the slapstick humour around his character.

Gambit is fluffy entertainment which passes the time adequately; but everything is somehow average - a textbook example of mediocre editing and odd pacing.

You're left wishing that the Coen brothers had directed it themselves.

YP Rating: 3/5



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