Yes, that is Farrell in the middle there…
Very quietly, it feels like Colin Farrell has rebuilt his career – and what the public perceives his career to be – with some consistently brilliant and left-field choices.
There was a time when Hollywood decided he was going to be The Next Big Thing (the era of SWAT, Phone Booth, The Recruit, the Total Recall remake, Daredevil, Alexander), but he has since shifted himself towards smaller, more interesting projects, working with some very interesting filmmakers.
The Lobster, Widows, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Beguiled, recent BBC hit The North Water… they’re all high-IQ, emotionally-vibrant critical darlings, and even when he does dip his toe back in the world of blockbusters (Fantastic Beasts, Dumbo, Voyagers), he’s usually the best thing in them.
2022 could prove to be his biggest year yet, appearing in arguably the most-anticipated blockbuster of the year, as Oswald Cobblepot in The Batman, as well playing the lead diver in real-life Thailand cave rescue movie Thirteen Lives, plus he’s reuniting with Brendan Gleeson and writer/director Martin McDonagh for The Banshees of Inisherin (which, to be fair, doesn’t have a specific release date yet, but will likely be late 2022).
Perhaps one of the best movies to fully utilise Farrell’s often over-looked talents was The Gentlemen, which has just been added to Netflix this week.
Released in cinemas in early 2020 to little fanfare but decent reviews (75% on Rotten Tomatoes), it is written and directed by Guy Ritchie in a semi-return to the gangster-geezer crime-thrillers (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, RocknRolla) that helped kick off his career.
He’s amassed a very impressive all-star cast here – Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Eddie Marsan and Hugh Grant – but it is Farrell who stands out from the crowd, the Irish coach to a group of young MMA fighters who happen to steal a large supply of drugs from the worst criminals imaginable.
Decked out in an eye-popping plaid jogging suit, every single time he appears on screen, Farrell completely steals the show from anyone unfortunate to be sharing a scene with him.
A must-watch for fans of the Irish actor, perfectly timed to remind us how great he is before he rightfully reappears everywhere in 2022.
The Gentlemen is available to watch on Netflix right now.
Clip via STX Films
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