Premiering at last year’s Toronto International Film festival, there was some interesting buzz for Hitman. Was it a potential Oscar contender? Who would snap it up in an already tight race? Ultimately, Netflix swooped in, which might have meant a campaign for this year’s Oscars, but that June release date tells me Netflix has other plans. Luckily, the movie stands on its own, and whether it ever wins or is nominated for any major award, this will have fans. It’s the equivalent to last year’s The Killer, which had fans too, even if it really didn’t manifest anything for David Fincher or Michael Fassbender.
Hitman also has what is turning out to be a really solid triple threat behind it. The audio description is done by International Digital center, written by Liz Gutman, and narrated by Jamie Lemcheck. This is a winning combination I’ve heard before, and I’ve heard since with movies I’m still pushing out reviews. This is a nuanced crime comedy, where a seemingly normal guy (Glen Powell), moonlights with the local police as a civilian… for when a cop can’t do the task? I really didn’t follow why cops need people like him, but he exists. Not a cop, but kind of a cop. The guy who does the impersonations as a Hitman has a scandal, so he ends up having to step in last minute, and he does terrific. Then he keeps doing such great work, that they aren’t even anxious to get the other guy back.
All of this is nice, until he ends up in front of a woman (Adria Arjona) who seems in a very different mental state than his other marks. Clearly wounded and abused, likely both physically and emotionally, he takes pity on her and finds a way to keep her from completing the hire and going to jail. Later on, he starts to check on her, making sure she’s OK, and they slowly fall for each other. Except… she thinks he’s someone else, and is totally cool with falling in love with a Hitman.
So it’s a crime, comedy, romance. Three genres blending together. Powell, who i remarked in my review of Anyone But You, gets a much longer comedic leash here than he did in the other romantic comedy that just required him to be attractive. Here, he creates all these different personas, and really does the character study when he goes in with his Hitman of the moment. Not only is he funny, but often he interacts with characters that are inherently funny as well. He also shares a co-writing credit with Linklater. This showed me even more of the Glen Powell I liked from way back before he was a big name.
I’m not even a huge Richard Linklater fan. But, credit where it is due, this is one of the strongest movies of the first half. Last year, I felt the same about Air, and when i reviewed that, I said then that I would be shocked if it remained in my top 10. I don’t expect this to be a year end Top 10, but certainly an honorable mention in the expanded top 25. Netflix has largely released cinematic waste and mediocrity for the first half of the year, so at least they had Hitman.
Final Grade: A
