{"id":85783,"date":"2024-06-28T14:59:33","date_gmt":"2024-06-28T14:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/universecatholicweekly.co.uk\/?p=85783"},"modified":"2024-06-28T14:59:33","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T14:59:33","slug":"hit-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/universecatholicweekly.co.uk\/hit-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Hit Man keeps your attention for a while but ultimately misfires"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hit Man <\/strong><\/p>\n

By John Mulderig<\/p>\n

A fact-based fish-out-of-water tale, director and co-writer Richard Linklater\u2019s black comedy “Hit Man” (Netflix) starts off intriguingly. After some needlessly graphic forays into eroticism, however, the film’s third-act departure from the real biography of its protagonist sends a morally skewed message.<\/p>\n

Glen Powell, who collaborated with Linklater on the script, which is based on an article by Skip Hollandsworth, plays mild-mannered New Orleans philosophy professor Gary Johnson. Although his routine-driven, solitary lifestyle centres on his cats, Gary’s flair for electronics does enable him to dabble in undercover surveillance work for the police as a sideline.<\/p>\n

Suddenly called upon to pose as an assassin-for-hire during a sting operation, Gary is initially intimidated and frightened. But he soon finds he has a knack for the work. Calling himself Ron, and dressed in ever more elaborate disguises, he tailors his various personas to meet the expectations of each suspect he’s trying to ensnare.<\/p>\n

Despite his success, Gary’s situation becomes complicated when he first falls foul of Jasper (Austin Amelio), the full-time policeman whose role he has usurped, and then falls for Madison (Adria Arjona), an abused wife who wants him to kill her lowlife husband, Ray (Evan Holtzman). Gary persuades Madison to adopt a more peaceful plan. But he doesn’t share his secret with her.<\/p>\n

By the midpoint of the running time, there’s an enjoyable irony to Gary’s dual life. He explores abstract questions of identity in the classroom while simultaneously conducting a secret romance in the guise of his tough-guy alter ego.<\/p>\n

But, ethically at least, things unravel with the movie’s climax. Without resorting to a spoiler, suffice it to say that the wrap-up of the plot blithely suggests that heinous crimes can serve as the foundation for a happy future. Such a wrongheaded outlook makes “Hit Man” unsuitable for viewers of any age.<\/p>\n

Director and co-writer Richard Linklater told deadline.com about interpreting the role of Gary Johnson and how Glen Powell helped develop the character. He said: \u201cA lot of those vignettes are based on real people. We had a lot of research, a lot of material to draw from, that were just the facts of the people Gary met. There\u2019s a rich society lady, a teenage boy who tries to pay in pennies and video games, and stuff like that, which Gary really came across.<\/p>\n

\u201cGlen went to town with that, especially with the disguises and the voices. Gary did do a little bit of that, but not to that fun a degree-I don\u2019t think he had the budget to be working with wigs and prosthetic make-up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Picture<\/strong>: Glen Powell stars in a scene from the film “Hit Man.” (OSV News photo\/Matt Lankes, Netflix)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hit Man By John Mulderig A fact-based fish-out-of-water tale, director and co-writer Richard Linklater\u2019s black comedy “Hit Man” (Netflix) starts off intriguingly. After some needlessly graphic forays into eroticism, however, the film’s third-act departure from the real biography of its protagonist sends a morally skewed message. Glen Powell, who collaborated with Linklater on the script,… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4045,"featured_media":85784,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nHit Man keeps your attention for a while but ultimately misfires - Universe Catholic Weekly<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A fact-based fish-out-of-water tale, director and co-writer Richard Linklater\u2019s black comedy "Hit Man" (Netflix) starts off intriguingly. 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