Gambit

What happens when a loser tries to win? He may end up losing - as usual. Or perhaps his last throw of the dice may be his lucky break. Dean (Colin Firth) is fed up of his wealthy by obnoxious boss, Lionel Shabandar (Alan Rickman). He plans to sell a fake Monet to him. It is one of a pair of paintings named 'The Haystacks'. One painted at dawn, the other at dusk. Shabandar has Dawn and craves the Dusk. That is where Dean, his art forger friend Major (Tom Courtney) and a cowgirl from Texas, PJ Puznowski (Cameron Diaz), the plot is laid - but the question is, will it hatch? That is where the stream of comical events take place from that point to the end (no spoilers - take your bet). Worth every minute. The laughter won't be fake.

this is a very well done comedic caper, with brightly outlined characters that are superbly cast (firth, courtenay, diaz and rickman), plenty of funny business (the scene in the savoy where diaz and firth quibble in perfect deadpan over the merits of "the little major" had me in tears with laughter), and the several plot twists were just absurd enough to recharge the comedy without destroying the fantasy. the film opens with a beautiful long sequence, the launching and execution of the caper in its entirety -- which involves the sale of a fake monet painting (the work of a talented forger, courtenay), purportedly owned by a texas cowgirl (diaz) to a bullying billionaire (rickman). this turns out to be a daydream of the caper mastermind (firth). the actual caper is then portrayed in humorous contrast, one miscue or impediment after another. several unexpected complications throw the plot into full improvisation, and as the final twist, in the last scene, we discover that we haven't understood the caper at all. it's all very cleverly put together, and the comedic chemistry among the actors is delightful.as a diehard coen brothers fan, i have to mention this quirk: the screenplay is by the coen brothers but is "mise en scène" by michael hoffman. if you know the coen brothers movies, the effect is uncanny. at some points you can see the coen visual humor blossom on the screen -- for example, the texas mobile home, the blustery femininity of the texas cowgirl, the natty demeanor of the art forger. but other scenes, such as the prolonged shenanigans in the savoy hotel, seem cut from a late ernst lubitsch caper. this puts a peculiar burden on colin firth as the caper mastermind, who must get punched in the face like nicholas cage in "raising arizona" but look unflappably suave with no pants on running around the savoy hotel. the good news is that firth is quite good at striking the balance ("did you say, room *thirteen* eighteen?") and the comedy amalgam of coen and lubitsch is great fun to watch.

Enjoyed

Gambit is a mildly diverting time waster that I've been waiting to see for a while because of the names of its two writers prominently attached to its marketing.Sure Gambit isn't a Coen Brothers film per se, but the presence of Colin Firth and Alan Rickman doing their best to be funny almost hides the unfortunate anchor keeping it from being something you'll remember long after watching.I've never seen the original Gambit so unlike The Italian Job or True Grit I don't have that bias holding me back from liking the film. As it goes Gambit is a mildly humorous film driven by stoic Colin Firths unfortunate ability to be a goof ball mucking up what He sees as the best made plans. Using the presence of an American Rodeo star He plans to con his boss into buying a forged painting thought lost to the ages from Nazi plundering. Thats the gist of the story told in an amazingly short time, something to hold in regard in this age where every film seems to need to push the two hour boundary.Then again this isn't A Serious Man, or even Raising Arizona. It is also thankfully not The Ladykillers, finding the right tone and carrying it through several setups to the finale earning some chuckles along the way. The appeal of Rickman and Firth go a long way in to providing humor to the story. Firth plays the hapless Harry Deane well creating a character who's not willing to admit defeat even when his actions are creating more and more chaos in his reality. Theres a long sequence I particularly liked in the middle of the film that Firth just plays right where He's stuck in hotel, trying to escape a laundry room without pants. Its silly but the way Firth handles every obstacle was funny to me.Rickman on the other hand plays that Alan Rickman character very, very well as an egotistical millionaire boss, One of the clever things about the role is the way its meant to subvert our view every so often, from the opening sequence which is changed in a twist, to his flirtations with Diaz. This is like the melding of Professor Snape and Hans Gruber played by an actor having fun.Less fun is the one thing that felt wrong in Cameron Diaz. I'm not one of those people who hate Ms. Diaz as an actress but to me compared to Rickman and Firth her P.J. Puznowski is too broad a performance, ill fitting in the role. From the accent to the way she dresses Diaz was a performer trying to be funny without the grace to actually make me laugh which is a shame.But then again in an eighty minute movie its not a terrible flaw especially when Firth and Rickman are doing the heavy lifting with their characters.In the end Gambit won't be remembered a year from now. Its not a great comedy but its a fun movie for that hour and a half that entertained me despite its problems.

Gambit isn't one of those movies that just lists big stars that you love but isn't really that great. The plot delivers from start to finish, the jokes deliver from start to finish and the actors are great as always. It's not often we laugh so hard that we have to stop the movie. We usually only do that with a few famous sitcoms out there. But we had stopped this movie numerous times to finish giggling or laughing! That just doesn't happen very often.You cannot figure out the end by the start of the movie, the jokes are extremely witty and sly, understated and performed exactly right. Alan Rickman, Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz are awesome. You didn't want anyone else in each role. It's perfect. We don't enjoy a lot of movies these days. The smart, dry and hysterical humor, like the kind you have to catch in Shakespeare plays (no this isn't Shakespeare) is here. If you love pitch perfect, well done acting that doesn't rely on goofing around or bathroom jokes, here's your movie. Finally!

Not a sensational movie but cute

Good product at a good price. Got it quickly. Happy

Je vois et revois encore ce film avec un très très grand plaisir.

Good

Movie was good, although Cameron Diaz was completely miscast.

J'aime beaucoup ce film plein d'humour. Pas d'ambition exagérée, pas de message, c'est une comédie sans prétention mais qui remplit bien son rôle. Colin Firth décidément est un excellent acteur et il apporte beaucoup au film. Mais les autres comédiens jouent tout aussi bien leur partition. Personne ne semble se prendre au sérieux et pourtant tous jouent le jeu, sans excès, et ce côté "pince sans rire" très anglais, personnellement me ravit.

Having been disappointed at missing Gambit when it was on at my local cinema a few months ago, I have now at last got round to watching it on DVD. My main criteria for watching this particular film is that I am an avid `Rickmaniac' (Alan Rickman fan) and, having got most of his films/TV work on DVD, felt I owed it to my allegiance to add this one too!So, as Colin Firth himself said in an interview, this film is not ground-breaking - all the old `clichés' from 60s and 70s capers seem to be there, along with `Pink Panther'-style farces - from Colin Firth without his trousers (time to move over, Brian Rix ) to a dig at the Japanese, American, Germans and indeed Brits, with all their stereotypical idiosyncrasies to the fore. All that seems to be missing is Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau, complete with trilby hat, magnifying glass and his trademark distinctly ridiculous French accent. Then again, it's what we, as Brits, do best - the fact that we haven't really done so since the 60s and 70s is neither here nor there. The other fact being that the Coen brothers, who wrote the script, ironically, are in fact American. Then again, the original of this was made in the early 1960s (with Michael Cain and Shirley McClain in the lead roles, and I'm led to believe that the original writer was in fact English, though please don't quote me on that.)The role of Harry Deane, the put upon Art Curator at the heart of the story, is not one that you would automatically think of Colin Firth for. And, although he does his very best, I spent most of the time I was watching him thinking that someone else (not sure who) might have been better. He wasn't terrible by any means but I personally think there are better comedic actors out there. Alan Rickman himself is larger than life as the selfish, arrogant media tycoon boss that Deane is trying to con, and Cameron Diaz plays her part well as the ditzy rodeo rider, `P.J' Puznowski, called in to help Deane. Maybe her 'Texan-ness' is somewhat over the top, but then again, I'm guessing that was deliberate too.Without giving away too much of the plot, I have to say I found some of the first part of the film a little confusing, but once the penny dropped, it all fell into place and totally made sense.However, side-splitting this film is not, but it does have its moments - such as a highly amusing scene in the Savoy Hotel foyer when two receptionists (superbly played by Pip Torrens and Julian Rhind-Tutt) get the wrong end of the stick re a conversation between P.J (Diaz) and Harry Deane: This is innuendo at it's very best and, in a way, the rest of the comedy from then on is a bit of a let down by comparison.Whilst it would be fair to say that this film would be unlikely to make anyone's `Top 10' (or probably `Top 100' for that matter), I'm sure there must be worse ways to spend 85 minutes. I can honestly say it was a fun, cheery `caper' that certainly left more than a hint of a smile on my face. (Not least because you get to see Colin Firth sans trousers, and more of Mr. Rickman than most of his other films have revealed; the latter not necessarily a good thing at his age of 67, I hasten to add, but I admit to being easily pleased at my own age nowadays!) The twist at the end though is definitely worth waiting for and elevates the film to slightly more than your average comedy, e.g. it has a plot!Quite what other reviewers have meant when they've said things like "the worst film ever" and "totally unfunny" (as some professional review claimed), I'm really not sure. Have they seen some of the movies out there? Trust me, this was one of Alan Rickman's better ones (though hardly a glamorous role, and playing a rather nasty character in a kind of endearing way that only he can) - and I should know - I've sat through them all!