REVIEW
Gringo
Where: Cineplex Odeon Westshore
Starring: David Oyelowo, Amanda Seyfried, Charlize Theron, Joel Edgerton
Directed by: Nash Edgerton
Parental advisory: 14A
Rating: 1 1/2 stars out of four
A mild-mannered middle-management stooge gets lost, only to find himself, south of the border, in the mostly middling action-comedy Gringo, directed by Nash Edgerton, written by Anthony Tambakis and Matthew Stone. David Oyelowo tests out his comedy chops as Harold, a nice-guy Nigerian immigrant scraping by and scrapping for his slice of the American Dream, which involves an inattentive wife (Thandie Newton), a tiny dog, a mountain of debt, and a couple of truly abusive, criminal individuals as bosses. Living the dream.
Harold and his bosses, basic bro Richard (Joel Edgerton) and wolf of Wall Street wannabe Elaine (Charlize Theron) work at a nebulous pharmaceutical company that鈥檚 secretly in a precarious financial position. Harold makes regular trips to check on the manufacturing in Mexico, and when Richard and Elaine come along, it results in trouble for Harold.
An under-the-table deal with a local drug cartel goes under and Harold becomes the No. 1 target. But suddenly, Harold doesn鈥檛 want to go home anymore, and thus begins a cycle of Harold faking his own kidnapping, being kidnapped, escaping, being kidnapped again, and so on and so forth.
There鈥檚 an interesting question of 鈥渨orth鈥� that circulates around this cycle of kidnapping and negotiation. Harold is dismayed that his company would rather negotiate than pay a full ransom for him, and that they鈥檝e let their kidnapping insurance lapse. When Harold continually evades capture, he suddenly accrues more worth because he鈥檚 scarce. It鈥檚 a fascinating idea that鈥檚 explored with far more depth and nuance in the Danish drama A Hijacking.
Everything about Gringo, from the storytelling to the comedy to the cinematography is incredibly lacklustre. The film is dark and dim, as if everything鈥檚 covered in a layer of dust. Oyelowo is quite endearing and funny as Harold, but he鈥檚 given very little to work with. The film just feels like it鈥檚 missing crucial connecting tissue storywise. The drug that their company manufactures 鈥� a cannabis product called Cannabax 鈥� isn鈥檛 explained until halfway through, and we don鈥檛 even know what it does or why anyone wants it.
And as much as Gringo is missing parts of the story, there are completely superfluous elements as well. Amanda Seyfried and Harry Treadaway show up as a pair of American tourists 鈥� he鈥檚 smuggling Cannabax out of Mexico and she鈥檚 his unknowing girlfriend. The only purpose for this subplot seems to be Sunny (Seyfried) befriending Harold for a short while. Gringo feels both interminable and thin, and very low-stakes 鈥� how can every single scene be both unnecessary and dull?
Gringo bills itself as a dark comedy, because it鈥檚 very violent (there鈥檚 almost no regard for human life, just Harold鈥檚) and because corporate piranha Elaine says a lot of shockingly horrible things 鈥� racist, sexist, ableist, fat-shaming horrible things. Her worldview is the definition of the phrase 鈥減unching down.鈥� The writers seem to think this makes her edgy, or tough, or worthy of admiration. If her character had any arc, it might make sense, but she doesn鈥檛.
Her abusiveness doesn鈥檛 tell us anything about her character, but it does tell us everything about these writers. Dark comedy is a difficult needle to thread, and one absolutely necessary quality to do it well is intelligence. But the treatment of
Elaine isn鈥檛 smart at all, just sensationalist and shocking.
This Gringo is better off staying underground forever.
