Richard Linklater is one of my favourite directors. Whether experimenting with the form in films like A Scanner Darklyand Boyhood, crafting one of the most nuanced romances in film history with the Before trilogy, or just plain entertaining the hell out of us with School of Rock, the man is one of the most talented filmmakers working today. Which is precisely why Hit Man, while perfectly passable and forgettably entertaining, was such a disappointment. Loosely inspired by the wild true story of faux hitman Gary Johnson and written by Linklater alongside leading man Glenn Powell (Top Gun: Maverick), the film somehow adds up to much less than the sum of its parts.
Gary, a nerdy and unassuming college professor by day, leads a quiet life in the suburbs with his two cats: Id and Ego. Moonlighting as tech support for the local police department, he works behind the scenes with a team that specializes in sting operations for folks looking to hire low rent hit men – apparently a booming business in Louisiana. It’s difficult to buy Glenn Powell as this version of Gary, the “perfectly forgettable” professor. The man is charisma personified, and his polo shirts and unflattering haircut feel like the trope of putting glasses on the hot girl and painting her as an outcast.
One fateful day, when their usual “hit man” Jasper (Austin Amelio) is suspended, Gary is persuaded to step in. Swapping his jorts for a pair of full-length jeans and unbuttoning the top of his sensible polo shirt, he falls into the role with shocking ease. He seems born for this, and revels in taking on another more rough and tumble identity. The rest of the surveillance team, Claudette (Retta – wasted here) and Phil (Sanjay Rao), are pleasantly surprised as Gary proves to be a natural, meticulously researching each potential target and transforming into the hit man of their dreams. The sequence that follows treats us to an absolutely horrific series of wigs and a few chuckles as Powell gets to take on a series of increasingly outlandish identities, but never quite feels as funny as it should.
Just as he’s hitting his stride, Gary meets Madison (Adria Arjona). Beautiful, vulnerable, and charming, Madison instantly hits it off with Gary. Besotted, he talks her out of her plan to have her husband killed, allowing her to get away scot-free. Understandably, the team is furious that he botched the sting, but all agree that his latest creation “Ron the Hitman” might be a bit irresistible. Gary might just have to keep this alter ego around for a while, especially when Madison starts to message him out of the blue.
The pair quickly fall into a steamy secret romance, but of course there are complications. Madison’s husband is still in the picture, and volatile to boot. With Madison’s arrival, the film crosses from comedy into noir, but never quite realizes that potential. Is she a femme fatale? Or just who she presents herself to be? Even Madison’s motives for wanting to kill her husband are rather unclear. He seems like a jerk, to be sure, but to go so far as having him killed? At some points we start to suspect that she may be setting Gary up for a fall, or at the very least that she has some kind of hidden agenda. In a more interesting film that might have been true. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it never really did.
Ostensibly set in New Orleans, the film feels completely unmoored from any sense of place. Perhaps on the of most evocative of locales in filmic history, the city is wasted here. New Orleans, a place seemingly built for the steamy noir trope, feels sterile and suburban. The film wraps itself up with a wild set of contrivances and a completely unbelievable ending that left me puzzled. For all the sex and murder and betrayal it contains somehow the end result is just leaves you wanting something more. For all its bluster, this movie just isn’t as much fun as it should be.
I’m not angry, Richard. I’m just disappointed.
Hit Man is currently streaming on Netflix.
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