When I saw previews for Gringo, it seemed hilarious: Harold, an earnest Nigerian immigrant as an everyman caught in the crossfire of corporate ruthlessness and criminal venality. I was close. My only error was that once he realizes how clueless he is, he tries to wise up and make his own schemes, which I think was a misstep that detracts from the otherwise hysterical premise. The outstanding cast more than makes up for this flaw and makes this action crime comedy solidly entertaining albeit violent though a bit disconcerting because a man called Black Panther is the head of the crime cartel.
Gringo brings out the texture by comparing and contrasting the natural born Americans’ versus the main character’s treatment of others when visiting another country and interacting with the locals. Harold knows about the locals’ lives, goes out of his way to show them respect, and knows what they like. His colleagues are dismissive and disrespectful. They do not bother to learn anything about their surroundings, embrace familiar surroundings and only want to take from it. Unfortunately all the Americans in the film exploit stereotypes about Mexicans being drug dealers and kidnappers to advance their own agenda. I would be interested to know how Mexicans and Mexican Americans feel about this film. On one hand, Mexico is painted as a paradise, but it is also the location for random crime and constant peril.
I think that I finally get Joel Edgerton who nails the dude bro, self-absorbed executive. I’ve always had a soft spot for Charlize Theron, and she brought more nuance to the role than she had to. Clearly Theron watched last summer’s Lady Macbeth. In one bar scene, she psychologically did in seconds what Red Sparrow could not do in two hours and nineteen minutes. David Oyelowo can do comedy, which is a pleasant surprise since he usually does drama, and skirts the scared Negro trope. Thandie Newton has a blink and you’ll miss it handful of moments. Paris Jackson has a brief appearance and is instantly recognizable. I mean the following as a compliment—she is like a living, breathing Snapchat face lens or cartoon character. Her features, particularly her eyes and her mouth, are just so prominent that she stands out. Amanda Seyfried isn’t given much to do. Yul Vazquez distinguishes himself early in a largely silent, but pivotal role.
Gringo is a movie with a lot of moving parts and a growing list of characters with conflicting agendas, but the story never becomes confusing and holds together as it twists and turns. The central premise of the story is alluded to throughout and explicitly discussed later in the film: are you having a crisis of faith or have you permanently sold your soul? Are you a Peter or Judas? Will your story come to an abrupt end or will you repent and find redemption? I did think that it was clever to basically have God answer the main character’s prayers in a very roundabout way. While I appreciate the film’s theological ambitions to elevate the movie’s content, I don’t think that the writers quite grasp the Biblical stories or the execution of the parallels, particularly at the end.
Gringo reduces the stories to good guys have happy, personal endings, and bad guys die brutally or have awful lives with one exception if you have real feelings and are hot. I would love nothing more than to believe that if you don’t lose faith, you get a perfect life, but you do realize that Peter got executed and died a painful death. The closest to a happy ending was John, and he died a prisoner with all his contemporaries dead so……Gringo’s happy ending is a very personal happy ending, not something generally redemptive that all people can harvest hope from. It ignores the story of the Prodigal Son and takes the side of the older brother who is sulky in the corner because he wants a reward for his grim, begrudging faithfulness instead of joyful service and satisfaction from being at home with the Father. The movie also gives no room for redemption to characters who betrayed the main character then see the error in their ways, which should not be confused and conflated with that person should be permitted to return to the person’s life whom she betrayed.
There were two minor, but glaring errors in the film. There is a scene when the main character answers that he has no one, but um, you at least have Stu played by Bashir Salahuddin who needed more scenes and was a perfect linchpin to the story as a true friend and advisor. Also in my personal experience, immigrants, especially if they come from an African country, have rich community connections so while it is possible to answer negatively, I think that it is extremely unlikely. Then the main character tells a story about the Nigerian prince email scam, which we now know is false so it should have ended up on the editing room floor (I know that most movies are shot in digital, not film, but let me have this expression). The Nigerian prince is actually a Louisiana sixty seven year old Caucasian male named Michael Neu.
I saw Gringo in the theaters, but you should not feel a sense of urgency to rush and see it. If you don’t mind your comedy to have violence, and you like the cast, then check it out at home if you are looking for something to do. While it is not mindless entertainment, it does fail in its attempt to be more meaningful than its crime caper counterparts. It is a bit forgettable.