We're just so damn fascinated by hit men. Especially hit men who seem be having existential doubts about their chosen profession. Nearly ten years ago, John Cusak gave it a shot with Grosse Pointe Blank, and this year Pierce Brosnan made his James Bond persona look "like a Thai hooker on Sunday morning after the Navy's left town" as his character says in The Matador.
"Killing's easy. Living's hard."
I love John Cusak in almost everything I see him in but Pierce Brosnan is a revelation, playing Julian Noble, a hired gun who's losing his nerve and really, really just needs a friend. He really deserves an Oscar nomination for this. Honestly, I don't think I've ever liked this actor more than I have in this role. Superb.
Richard Shephard's script and direction for The Matador are also superior to Grosse Pointe Blank. Not that I think running into a hit man in a Mexico hotel room is a likely scenario as happens to Greg Kinnear in this latest film, but at least the friendship which develops between them has real character to it and a vibe that feels possible. On the other hand, virtually the whole set-up of Gross Pointe Blank is contrived. In that film, Cusak just happens to have a hit to do in a town where his 10th year high school re-union is being held. And there are supporting characters like Dan Akroyd, playing another hitman who wants to organize a union of hitmen, that just seems like a stretch. In The Matador, there are no coincidences, the characters move the plot by being who they are.
The Matador. Because it's about a real friendship between damaged people who need each other and it's made even more real by a spectacular performance by its star.
