IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (K. Jensen) review
Los Angeles Times (K. Walsh) review
RogerEbert.com (G. Kenny) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review
Gringo [2018] (directed by Nash Edgerton, story and screenplay cowritten by Matthew Stone along with Anthony Tambakis) is an odd mix -- arguably the story of Job re-imagined as the principal protagonist in a dark yet by the end almost Shakespearean tragicomedy.
Poor Harold Soyinka (played by David Oyelowo) a hard-working educated Nigerian-born immigrant in his late thirties, who begins the story working as an accountant for a vaguely-shady certainly b-tier Chicago-based pharmaceutical company and with, at minimum, a spendthrift wife (played by Thandie Newton).
Early in the film, Harold is warned by his own accountant, a friend, that the company he's working for is being setup for a merger and when that comes along, he could be out of a job. So when Harold comes to work, he asks his boss, if "all is okay with the company," and assured by his ever smiling, but take one look at him and you'd be insane to trust him boss Richard Rusk (played wonderfully by Joel Edgerton) "of course it is, and besides I look after my friends." That's not exactly an answer...
Well, assured that all is fine, Harold is nevertheless sent down to Mexico to "clean up" some accounting "problems" with a medical marijuana pill that that the company had been developing there -- apparently "some of the product" was "going missing" and while one _could_ have considered that "the cost of doing business" especially with THAT particular "product" ... IF ONE'S COMPANY IS GOING TO BE BOUGHT BY ANOTHER, these kind of "discrepancies" would have to be explained / covered over.
So poor Harold, a Nigerian immigrant, but to absolutely EVERYONE down in Mexico he's "the Gringo" or "the black (somewhat exotic) Gringo" is sent there to "fix" something that's not exactly easily "fixable." His Mexican counterpart, a lovely Mexican accountant, who's adopted a soccer team sized number of orphan-kids on his salary gets one of big toes clamped-off by the local drug lord who ... unsurprisingly, would like the previously "negotiated arrangement" between "his organization" and "the gringo medical marijuana" er "pharmaceutical company" to ... "continue."
And it just gets worse. Soon there's a hit man, actually even a series of hit men, representing all kinds of "interests" big and small, originating from across both sides of the Border, who'd just prefer Harold, the little Nigerian-born "Gringo" account to be ... dead.
The key scene in the film is when facing one of these hit men, one actually sent by his slimy boss (remember "his friend" back in Chicago), poor Harold drops to his knees and begins to pray: "O God, save me in this my hour of distress!"
The hit man, asks incredulously: "O come on, you don't believe in God do you?" To which Harold, remember a GOOD MAN from Nigeria, answers with similar incredulity: "What kind of man does not believe in God?" to which the hit man, taken aback, answers: "Well, I guess, I kinda do..." and ... quite soon, quite randomly another gang of two bit thugs, ALSO looking for Harold, run the hit man over saving his life ... for the moment.
And so it is. I suppose the "redeeming value" of the film is perhaps that in Shakespearean fashion pretty much ALL the bad people GET THEIRS while the good people ... Harold, his heart-of-gold Mexican counterpart, and one other sweet young American lady named Sunny (played by Amanda Seyfried) turn out okay.
But did this movie _really_ have to be made? Well, I'll leave that question up to you ;-)
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