Rent Love, Honour and Obey (2000)

A really funny Guy Ritchie inspired gangster film, despite a third act which really doesn't work - Love, Honour and Obey review by TB

After Lock Stock, Guy Ritchie was the hottest thing in gangster films/exuberant cinema, his unconventional nonlinear style mixed with humour & amazing soundtracks entering into the cultural zeitgeist of the 90's. And, as with all these behemoths, there were plenty of people who looked at what he had achieved and wanted to jump onto the bandwagon/cash in to the newest & most exciting craze. And one partnership which managed to succeed in this, as well as managing to get one of the hottest casts at the time, was Dominic Anciano & Ray Burdis. Fresh off making a very well-received & successful debut called Final Cut, they were then given the budget to make Love Honour and Obey.

The plot, in the loosest sense of the word, imagines a London full of a group of people who sort-of know each other and a few of them who are involved with dodgy dealings/underworld schemes. Also, confusingly, most of the characters are also called the first names of the actors who portray them. So Johnny Lee-Miller plays Johnny, who is stuck in a dead-end job as a postman but who also is friends with Jude (Jude Law,) whose family are small-time gangsters, headed by Ray (Ray Winstone.) Johnny wants to become a part of the gang, but it all goes wrong.

This film wasn't even on my radar. The only reason I rented it was because I was chatting with a work colleague who was also into his films and he could not stop going on about it. I watched with a mate of mine and for 70% of the running time, it is an absolute riot to watch. It is genuinely funny, with great lines, soundtrack & situations that are equally as good, if not better, than anything Ritchie came up with in the same period. The cast themselves also had a great time shooting it, as you would do if you were paid to spend a few weeks hanging around with your mates being stupid & with a great script.

Unfortunately, and there is no reason for this to happen, the film then does something completely inexplicable which comes dangerously close to ruining it completely: it turns from a silly, happy-go-lucky caper into a really nasty, almost torture-porn film. The humour completely vanishes, and in its place are the same characters you have just spend the last hour having a laugh with, who are then put into a totally different film. And I can't overstate how much of a misfire this is. And this was probably the main reason why the film actually didn't get great reviews.

Funnily enough, for me the best comparison for how you will deal with this is the Christopher Nolan film Interstellar. Both of them are great films which then have terrible endings/final thirds. For some people, these narrative choices/decisions totally ruin the whole experience for them & they then dislike the films for that reason. For me though, both of these movies do so much right in the first two thirds that overall I can give them a free pass.

Whilst it is sad that Love Honour and Obey does lose its way towards the end, not for a second do I regret the journey leading up to that point. Full of laughs & genuinely funny.