Hit Man
A mild-mannered professor learns he’s a fan of walking on the wild side in this screwball comedy
Adria Arjona and Glen Powell trade on killer chemistry in Richard Liklater's Hit Man.
Gary Johnson (Glen Powell) is content. He teaches philosophy class in a New Orleans college, he birds, he feeds his cats, and on weekends he pretends to be a hitman for the New Orleans Police Department. The latter was a gig Gary fell into — he started off as a sound technician for the department recording people hiring an undercover cop as a hitman, but when the typical officer was suspended, Gary got the job.
The thing is, Gary is good at pretending to kill people for a living.
He’s so good that he develops a nearly foolproof hitman creation system. Gary researches his targets and crafts a hit man that will fill them with confidence. Sometimes, the mark will want a cold professional with a vaguely European accent. Sometimes the mark will only loosen up while skeet shooting with a second amendment lauding gold ole boy. Whatever the mark wants, Gary figures it out and delivers.
That is until he meets Madison (Adria Arjona), a beautiful woman who is desperate to rid herself of a controlling husband. Gary is instantly beguiled and can’t bring himself to gather evidence on such a sweet woman. He gives her some advice and sends her on her way.
The police are pretty mad, but Madison is grateful and seeks out Gary (who she knows as Roy the Hit Man) to thank him for his advice. Can Gary date a former suspect he allowed to escape? Is pretending to be an assassin changing Gary’s judgment?
Director Richard Linklater is a big fan of his home state of Texas, and an even bigger fan of Texas Monthly, a magazine that gathers together the best human interest stories and BBQ news the Lone Star State has to offer. Linklater has pulled inspiration from the publication before to create the deliriously off-kilter Bernie. The publication came through for him again with Hit Man, when it featured the true story of Gary Johnson. The story we get here is fictionalized (thank goodness), but all the more entertaining for it. Think of Hit Man in the same genre as A Fish Called Wanda, Arsenic and Old Lace, and Bernie.
In his grand tradition of Texas Monthly films, Hit Man is closer to a morbid screwball comedy than a drama, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable to behold. Linklater, along with co-writers Powell and Skip Hollandsworth, has a knack for teasing the sublime absurdity out of nearly every situation. Linklater perfectly balances the real-world consequences of the story with the goofy logic you find in a romantic comedy. Is dating a guy you tried to hire to murder your husband a good idea? Probably not. But what if he looked like Glen Powell and was a good dancer? What we get is a romcom with deadly comic beats and some genuinely charming performances.
At the center of the film is the chemistry between Powell’s Gary and Arjona’s Madison. The pair sparks off of each other whenever they interact, crackling with sexual tension. It’s an effective pairing and one that makes it easy to understand why Gary would be so tempted to break a few rules for Madison.
And though Arjona is a perfect femme fatale, it’s Powell’s Gary that really steals the show. Powell evokes classic American everyman icons like Tom Hanks and Jimmy Stewart as he takes Gary from goofy sweetheart to suave seducer. Gary is a man who is fine living a small life, but as he explores new identities, crafting hit men for a myriad of people, he begins to allow himself to think bigger. Maybe he isn’t so content with his birding and his cats. Perhaps he isn’t the type of guy who drives a boring Toyota. As Gary embraces this new personality, however, he must face the consequences of his decision.
This movie is the cinematic equivalent of cotton candy — light, sweet, and easy to enjoy — but the second you try to examine it too closely, you’ll end up with a mess. Like most great screwball comedies, you’ll have to accept the premise and go with the flow. If you’re in the mood to watch attractive people be charming as the world falls apart around them, go ahead and hire Hit Man.
Verdict: A light bit of absurdity, Linklater’s latest comedy is fully loaded.
Hit Man is rated R and is available on Netflix.
