A Killer Romance

Richard Linklater's movie career has been punctuated by intense narratives originating from everyday events. 'Hit Man' somehow achieves the opposite - it's a fluffy confection based on the exploits of a psychology professor who poses as a professional hit man.

The purpose of Gary Johnson's masquerades is to help his local police department entrap those wanting to hire a killer. The film's introductory sequences show several unconvincing restaurant encounters where he assures a procession of would-be murderers he's a hardened criminal in the liquidation business. When a beautiful Latina asks him to terminate her abusive husband, Gary baffles his handlers by refusing her down-payment, and suggesting she initiates divorce proceedings instead of contracting a homicide. By this point, the narrative has departed from anything close to gritty realism - and clownish complications ensue when Gary secretly starts an affair with this 'femme fatale' while maintaining his assassin persona.

'Hit Man' could have followed in the footsteps of modern classics like 'Body Heat', but Linklater chooses to play it for comedy rather than drama. Tension is lost as the story becomes increasingly frivolous, until it arrives at a conclusion that belongs in a farce. The acting performances and lightly amusing screenplay just about hold one's interest, but the final product feels like an insubstantial appetizer that could have been a memorable main course with a different approach.

It is a good movie for a lazy Saturday evening, entertaining enough to keep your attention throughout and go to bed with a half-smiled satisfaction. Nothing less, nothing more. A lukewarm experience.

It's even, consistent, but never warms up to 30 C degrees or over. I guess that was intentional given the real life implications of the story. It might have been more exciting at times, even frantic in certain scenes, but it wasn't. What a pity.

From a movie making point of view, it is almost impeccable. Good direction, simple but effective camerawork, good score and editing, and most of all, superb acting makes it a good and quite joyful watch.

If you look for a light entertainment, there you go. You can leave your brains at home. No worries.

This was billed as a quirky, clever Rom-Com by both its trailers and critics. The trailers looked fantastic, like a spirited passion project between Linklater and Powell that would parody the whole Rom-Com genre in witty fashion. The reality is this is just another Rom-Com film with critics falling head-over-heels with Linklater (as they always do). The most interesting part of the film is actually the first act, when Glen Powell gets to shine in a diverse portfolio of characters, including a long, gritty dialogue exchange. By the time the love interest appears in the second act, the film has already fallen into just another collage of good cop/good person/bad circumstance entanglement. Unfortunately the film never really redeems itself, nor its characters in unforgiveable acts. Its story feels mundane and outcome certain. While I had hoped for more, it was at least an easy viewing.

Glen Powell was blah in his last "big" movie, "Anyone But You". Here, things don't improve, although this time his female costar is just as extravangantly luscious as Sydney Sweeney, only brunette. His character, Gary Johnson dresses up in wigs and hats and costumes and assumes accents and personas to convince qould-be criminals that's he's a real hit man, but only they believe him - the audience certainly doesn't. One critic, Jason Fraley, describes the rom-com arc of the plot as "Fifty Shades Of Gary". The film is emotionless and gutless and packs zero punches. I kept waiting to laugh or be intrigued or moved or something... but nope, nothing/

First thing's first: Glen Powell is incredible in this movie. He transforms across the spectrum of characters incredibly well. He's dynamic and believable in this role that boarders on absurdity and keeps it in bounds.

The premise of the story was entertaining and engaging, with an enjoyable secondary cast.

Adria Arjona was also fun, but her character could've better developed. The high octane romance tag transpires feels entirely too surface for how emotionally involved it becomes in the end. There were no flashes of actual connection beyond sexual intensity and discussion about murder. It would've been nice to see them have at least one "get to know you" interaction outside of the sex-murder dichotomy.

The ending is also.... Unnecessary. Maybe for laughs amongst the people who knew the real Gary Johnson, but for storytelling purposes it was a little too campy.

An entertaining watch, one of Netflix's better recent films. But it does fall a little flat in a couple places.