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like Richard Shepard's "The Matador"
exists in a world of their own making, where the
rules are made up as the film progresses. It's in
this type of environment that an assassin can
confess his profession to a meek salesman, only to
have the salesman ask for a demonstration of the
assassin's skills. Or when an assassin shows up at
your house unannounced, your wife wonders if he
(the assassin) has brought his gun with him so she
can touch it. If you've seen John Cusack's late
1990s hitman comedy "Grosse
Pointe Blank", then "The
Matador" will seem familiar, as the two films
involve assassins who encounter an emotional
crisis that hinders their ability to do their job,
and must resolve it with help from an outside
source. In the case of Martin Blank in
"Grosse Pointe", it was a High School
reunion and an ex-girlfriend; with "The
Matador", it's a salesman in a hotel lobby
bar.
In "The Matador",
Pierce Brosnan plays Julian Noble, a charming,
almost middle-aged assassin who travels from city
to city "facilitating" murders. While in
Mexico City
for a job, Julian's handler casually reminds him
that it's his birthday, setting off a chain of
events that quickly spirals out of Julian's
control. For the first time the hitman starts to
feel his age, and it all comes crashing down when,
drunk one night, he has no one to turn to besides
fellow criminals who want nothing to do with him.
Julian's situation brightens when he stumbles
across Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear), a businessman
in
Mexico City
for a meeting that will decide his future. The two
strike up a conversation, and for once in his
life, Julian has found someone to talk to.
Mexico City
takes up nearly half of the film's running time,
but soon the two must part company and return to
their separate lives. For Julian, it's back to
killing, except he's still messed up, and without
Danny to talk to, he's botching jobs and having
major mental breakdowns. Uh oh. You know what
happens when an assassin botches jobs in movies.
Soon Julian is knocking on Danny's door in
Denver
, hoping for some little help. What's a married
couple to do when an international assassin shows
up at your door in the middle of the night?
"The Matador" is a
simple, straightforward film that breaks down into
two acts -- Julian and Greg in
Mexico City
, and Julian, Greg, and Greg's wife Bean (Hope
Davis) in
Denver
6 months later. The ending and resolution to
Julian's problems are not really all that
important, because the film is about the
interaction between the film's primary characters
played by Kinnear and Brosnan. The two men do
great work, first in their awkward meeting in the
hotel lobby bar, then later during a lengthy
sequence where Julian teaches Danny the tricks of
the trade -- namely how to set up, and then take
out, the target. "The Matador" is
essentially a 3-person play with Julian, Danny,
and later on, Bean.
Sold as a comedy, "The
Matador" isn't laugh out loud funny enough to
be called funny. The more appropriate description
might be amusing. There aren't any major punch
lines to be had, and although the film elicits a
few chuckles here and there, it's really not
written by Shepard as a "hijinks ensue"
type of movie. And unlike Cusack's "Grosse
Pointe Blank", Shepard's movie is almost
completely devoid of action. We see Julian take
aim with his weapons throughout the movie, but
there is never any blood shown onscreen. In fact,
the whole profession of assassination is treated
like just another job to be performed by someone
with a low morale threshold. As with "Grosse
Pointe", "The Matador's" best
moments involve people reacting casually to
Julian's profession, as if they stumble across
international assassins at least once a week.
"The Matador" is
worth watching just to see Pierce Brosnan dump his
suave 007 persona for a character that is rather
despicable, although despicable and
affable at the same time, if such a thing is
possible. Julian likes his women young, his liquor
doubled, and his sex paid for. Yet, despite his
many, many scruples (he readily admits he's a
prick), when offered a job to kill someone, he
refuses for the client's sake. As the Ned Flanders
to Julian's Homer Simpson, Greg Kinnear does a
fine job, but it's nothing he hasn't done in other
movies. As such, Kinnear's Danny doesn't quite
stand out as much as Brosnan's Julian, and I
suspect that's why Brosnan chose the role in the
first place. It allows him to stretch, to show his
comedic flair, and who better than straight-laced
Greg Kinnear to play against?
"The Matador" isn't
a great movie, which may seem like a strange thing
to say after all the time I've spent in this
review praising Brosnan and Kinnear's
performances. To be sure, the rapport between the
two men is undeniable and is really what makes the
film as worthwhile as it is. The same with Hope
Davis, who easily steals the show when her
character gets more than a cameo appearance in the
second half. Still, there's this nagging feeling
that "The Matador" is a retread, and the
film never really manages to convince otherwise.
Plus, the fact that it's a movie about a hitman,
and there are no action scenes whatsoever, is
somewhat disappointing. |
