MIDNIGHT REVIEWS Hit Man Review
Midnight Reviews features reviews and thought pieces written and edited by a parent, at night, after bedtime.
Hit Man (1hr 55mins)
Directed by: Richard Linklater
Featuring: Glen Powell, Adria Arjona, Austin Amelio
Synopsis: A teacher who moonlights for the local police department as an undercover hitman quickly finds himself in hot water when he finds himself attracted to a woman who enlists his fake services.
Review: It’s a sign of the times when we can look at the runtime of Hit Man and think about how short it is. It was nice getting enough time to watch and review a movie in the same day, not that this little fact should stop your Martin Scorseses and your Chris Nolans and such. But what we have with Hit Man is a perfectly weighted and calibrated mixture of genres that gives off a vibe of some very talented people having a lot of fun.
Gary Johnson (Powell), with the name you give an American secret agent, is a nondescript psychology and philosophy teacher who remains, for almost all who encounter him, anonymous. His only company are his two cats, Id and Ego, and the table he owns never has to get folded out for guests. The rub, at least for him, is when he finds out he’s really good at pretending to be a hit man. As the narration, itself a tool of various hit man movies over the years even up until modern times with David Fincher’s The Killer, states, everyone who tries to hire Gary has a picture in their head of what a hit man should look like. Part of what makes Gary so effective is that he researches and works out the type of character he should be for them.
Where the humour could’ve only come from a funny montage of Powell trying on different wigs does continue for the rest of the movie after he meets Madison (Arjona), who attempts to hire him to murder her husband. The film has copious laughs both at Gary’s expense and others. It’s a very witty script. Comedy comes not just from the wacky outfits Gary puts himself in (including semi-impersonations of Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey, with a pinch of Brad Pitt peppered throughout) but from the bind he finds himself in. The only issue I would have with Powell’s casting is that the man is larger than life; I don’t fully buy Gary Johnson being as anonymous as the film wants him to be.
A bunch of seemingly disparate parts that come together to create an incredibly messed up love story.
Some of the themes of the movie are rather spelt out for the viewer, whilst others are subtler. The fact I’ve used the phrase ‘find himself’ twice in the synopsis should be a clue. Linklater has a lot of fun using road signs, these little pieces of mise-en-scène aptly showing how Gary’s desires and how he thinks he should act are in different directions.
Powell and Arjona’s chemistry is off the charts, with their first shared scene providing everything you’d want from a complicated love story. Both Powell and Arjona show how their characters are, in the words of the movie itself, their own version of messed up. They, and the film itself, are a bunch of seemingly disparate parts that come together to create an incredibly messed up love story.
The script does put a lot of effort into making sure Gary and Madison come off as well as possible, despite the fact between them there are murders and other nasty things committed. Is it wrong that Gary sleeps with Madison, despite not telling her anything about who he really is? Is it okay to murder someone if they are a racist, misogynist abuser? It almost seems like Powell and Linklater, both credited as writers, are very aware that with the acts their main characters commit, they have to at least try and make their victims worse. It feels a little bit like a cop-out not because a movie’s protagonist has to be good, more that it just happens to allow Gary to get off scot-free and the movie to end the way it needs to.
That being said, everything else about the movie is outstanding. From about a third of the way in, Gary digs a deeper and deeper hole for himself and Hit Man simultaneously builds up the tension and the laughs. There are the scenes you would expect to happen (Gary is found out by Madison; Gary is found out by one of his team; Gary is pretending to be a hit man with one person, but someone else who knows him as plain old Gary comes along) but these scenes are written and played well enough that it doesn’t matter you know they’re coming.
The surprise comes in the form of Austin Amelio as Jasper. Aggressive and condescending, constantly sniping at Gary any chance he can get, Jasper at first seems like a cookie-cutter character, an angry cop who’s just been suspended. But as time goes on, Amelio’s performance manages to keep us and Gary on our toes whilst providing some of the biggest laughs (the understated way he assures Gary whilst hanging out of a van might be the funniest part of the movie).
Ultimately, this is an exercise just like the previously mentioned The Killer, with some incredibly talented people doing what they do best. However here there is actual emotion as opposed to sallow coldness. Or callous sadness. Powell has recently established himself as a star and here he gets to help write himself some cracking scenes that allow him to stretch some comedic muscles and as mentioned, have fun. And despite that feeling of looseness and fun, the production values are no slouch either. Watching it at home, my only regret was that I didn’t get to see some of the vibrant photography up on the big screen. Catch it while you can.
Hit Man is out in cinemas and available to stream on Netflix. Try the first option if you can — it’s always better in the cinema!
Matthew D. Smith likes to overshare his views on movies and TV shows whenever and wherever he can. Indulge him, and follow him on Twitter or listen to the podcast he co-hosts with Leslie Wai.
