Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Gary Johnson is a professor who works for the police part-time. His job? He pretends to be a hit man for people looking to hire a contract killer and then works to get them arrested on intent-to-murder charges. He might be the most professional pretend hit man in town, but things get out of hand when he starts to mix up his personal and professional lives after getting too involved with a gorgeous woman who wants her husband dead.
Directed by Richard Linklater, “Hit Man” stars Glen Powell as protagonist Gary Johnson. He has also co-written the story with Linklater and Skip Hollandsworth. “What you’re about to see is somewhat a true story inspired by the life of Gary Johnson”—the almost 2-hour-long movie opens with this simple disclaimer, promising viewers the allure of reality mixed with some fiction. The opening scene sees Glen Powell in nerdy glasses and a boring haircut, delivering a spirited lecture about Nietzsche’s quote: “The secret for harvesting from existence the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment is: to live dangerously!” An amusing irony to set the tone, as Gary himself lives a rhythmic, repetitive life until his part-time job with the cops gives him the chance to play a hit man instead of the back-end guy.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the fact that the makers think giving Glen Powell a nerdy professor look would make him seem “forgettable,” a requisite for his undercover job, because it needs him to not be memorable to anybody. His good looks are evident, regardless of nerdy clothes, so we have a Superman-Clark Kent thing going, where with glasses Gary is plain, but without them he is so debonair that both women and men would line up for a date with him. Of course, Gary decides to give the gig his 100 percent, so he keeps changing his look depending on the client he is supposed to be playing a contract killer for and the make-up team for Hit Man does a brilliant job at giving Glen Powell some really diverse personas. That’s what made the first half so fun—it involved Gary taking on multiple personalities, meeting dozens of desperate people looking to get rid of someone in their lives. Each encounter ends in an entertaining police mug shot of the client after they implicate themselves while talking to Gary.
Adria Arjona plays Madison, a beautiful young woman whom Gary becomes infatuated with when he pretends to be Ron, a suave hit man she hires to get her husband killed. So instant is Gary’s crush that he ensures Madison doesn’t implicate herself and instead convinces her to walk away from her troubled marriage. Soon, Madison contacts Ron, aka Gary, again, and the two begin a passionate affair. Even though Gary tries not to get personal with Madison, he soon finds himself embroiled in a criminal mess due to her actions.
While Glen Powell gets to portray a bunch of pop culture icons while pretending to be a hit man, the most fun one being his “American Psycho” imitation of Christian Bale, Adria Arjona tries (emphasis on tries) to channel her inner Salma Hayek as the sexy Madison who loves the idea of dating a bad boy like Ron, who in her head is a seasoned killer. Unfortunately, Glen Powell and Adria Arjona’s onscreen chemistry is lukewarm—it’s not bad, but Glen definitely had more fireworks with Sydney Sweeney in the romantic comedy “Anyone But You.” Not just that, the romantic subplot with Madison bordered on being cringe and didn’t match up with the expectations set by Gary’s personality in the first half. The makers, of course, cleverly try to sell his inconsistencies in personality by convincing us that Gary simply chooses to adopt a personality that lets him have the most fun, in this case, Ron, who gets to date a femme fatale like Madison. However, Madison’s character is far too basic and cliched and Adria Arjona doesn’t sell it well.
If I had gone into “Hit Man” blind, I would’ve never guessed it’s a Richard Linklater film, whose last directorial (also available to watch on Netflix) is the vastly different animated flick “Apollo 10½,” a nostalgic sci-fi ride to the 1960s. “Hit Man” also gets a lot of its cinematic elements right: the cinematography is engrossing, the narration is crisp, the background music is an eclectic mix that blends well with the plot. However, the last hour feels out of sync with the first act of the film, and the climax is far too contrived, even though it should appeal to those who love a “happy ending,” even if the characters don’t necessarily deserve it. Overall, “Hit Man” is an entertaining enough film about a goody-two shoes professor moonlighting as a fake killer.
Rating: 6 on 10. You can stream Hit Man on Netflix.
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