Film Review: "Hit Man"
The Richard Linklater-directed Glen Powell vehicle uses black comedy and romance to tell a morally ambivalent noir story.
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By this point it’s become almost an article of faith that Glen Powell is a “movie star” in the old-fashioned sense of the word and, while he might not be everyone’s cup of tea, I continue to be one of those who will sing his praises. No matter what role he’s in, the man continues to exude charisma, charm, and sexiness. Not to put too fine a point on it, but in my not-so-humble opinion he is quite simply sex on legs. Any time that Powell appears on the screen you can’t help but look at him, marveling at his ability to marshal the “it” in each and every one of his performances.
Thus, it’s easy to see why Powell has become so popular and why he is the kind of star who can anchor his own film, the most recent one of which is Hit Man, which just debuted on Netflix. Directed by Richard Linklater, and loosely (very loosely) based on a true story, it focuses on Powell’s Gary Johnson, who is a philosophy professor in his regular life but moonlights as a fake hitman for the police, luring criminals into exposing themselves through his clever use of disguise. He proves remarkably good at his chosen field, until he crosses paths with Adria Arjona’s Madison, and their romance makes both of their lives much more complicated…and deadly.
From the moment we meet him it’s clear that Powell’s Johnson is something special, even if the film wants us to see him as only moderately attractive at best while in his daily life. However, even his dowdy dad clothes and bad haircut aren’t quite enough to disguise the fact that this is Glen Powell we’re talking about, and the actor’s undeniable charisma and commitment to the role more than makes up for some of the more egregious leaps in logic that the film makes. It’s when Johnson adopts his persona as “Ron”--the hit man who is trying to ensnare Madison–that we see the sex appeal shine through most acutely, and it’s no wonder that these two beautiful people begin a relationship, even though it’s clear to Gary/Ron and the audience (if not to Madison) that this is a very, very bad idea.
As other critics have noted, there’s crackling chemistry between Powell and Arjona, one that’s apparent from the very moment they meet in a diner. Indeed, I’d probably say that their bond papers over some of the more baffling elements of the plot, and I also think there’s something to the argument that Madison is this film’s femme fatale. There’s always a bit of her that she manages to keep back from both Gary and the audience, and while we have no reason to doubt her claim that she’s in an abusive relationship–her husband not only accosts her outside of a bar but also tries to enlist Gary/Ron to kill her–the truth is that she’s also quite cold-blooded in her own right, and her actual motivations remain unclear right up to the very end. Did she shoot her husband because she genuinely feared he would come after her, or did she do it for the insurance money? The film refuses to answer this question one way or the other, and it’s stronger for it.
Generically, Hit Man is one of those films which is voracious in its approach. There’s the rom-com element, of course, and there’s also more than a little black comedy. However, this all gets folded into the noir element in as the film enters its final stretch and Gary has to decide whether he’s going to turn in his love interest because she murdered her husband in cold (very cold blood) or whether he’s going to use his knowledge of the way law enforcement works to make sure she gets off. When faced with the moral choice between letting a corrupt cop go and sacrificing them both, Gary ultimately lets him suffocate in a plastic bag, thus ensuring their fates are forever bound together. It’s an ominous scene, and it reveals the extent to which there is far more going on with our protagonist than we might have been led to believe. We’ve already seen that Gary has a keen understanding of the workings of the human mind and of the philosophical trappings of Nietzsche, and now we see just how far he’s willing to go to see them brought to fruition.
In the end, Gary and Madison get to live out their lives in peaceful domesticity in the suburbs, and I’ll admit that I was rather surprised by this ending, precisely because it puts us as viewers in a morally compromised position that is oddly similar to that of our protagonists. Yes, we’ve spent half of the film watching these two engage in some very steamy lovemaking and yes, there’s no doubt that [her] soon-to-be-ex-husband is an asshole. And yes, the other cop was a real jerk, too, and was put on leave because he abused some teenagers. But does this give these two characters the right to kill just so long as they get a happy ending?
A less daring film than Hit Man would have tried to tie all of this up neatly, or at the very least have given us some indication that what we’ve just seen is in some way a bad thing and that these are bad people. However, this film is far too smart for that, instead using its humor to implicate us in its characters’ nefariousness. Indeed, in addition to being a very smart screenplay it is also at times gut-bustingly funny, particularly when we see the various identities that Gary adopts during his various missions. Arguably the best of these is the one that is clearly meant to evoke Tilda Swinton, though the homage to Patrick Bateman of American Psycho is a good runner-up.
Hit Man also proves, once again, why the much-ballyhooed death of the movie star might have been a bit premature. Powell has been having a very good couple of years, what with the surprising success of Anyone But You, Hit Man and, later this summer, Twisters, which promises to be a summer blockbuster of the ‘90s sort. Now, despite how good the film is and how undeniably charismatic Glen Powell is, I do worry more than a bit that Hit Man is going to end up getting washed away by the neverending spurt of content that the streamer is infamous for creating. True, there have been some signs that Netflix is at least moderately willing to give its bigger features time to catch fire–there was a lot of discourse around Todd Haynes’ May December, after all–and hopefully the same will be true of this film.
In any case, it’s more than worth a watch, so go see it!