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CAPSULE: A strange pair, a bland salesman (Greg Kinnear) and a hired assassin (Pierce Brosnan) forms a sort of bond (no pun intended). After meeting the assassin in a Mexican bar, the salesman feels fascination and repulsion for the stranger who has come into his life. This film is not so much a thriller as a comedy of bad manners. Action is kept to a minimum, but the conversation is what is interesting. The film written and directed by Richard Shepard is a pleasant minor film that seems to be getting some major attention. Rating: high +1 (-4 to +4) or 6/10.
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Clint Eastwood's recent films have been trying to put a bullet in his Man with No Name. His more recent film like UNFORGIVEN and MILLION DOLLAR BABY have had strong anti-violence themes, negative on his the sort of character he had played time and again. Pierce Brosnan may have been doing something similar, creating secret agents who are less appealing than his James Bond. In THE TAILOR OF PANAMA he played Andy Osnard, a sleazy agent. Now he is playing Julian Noble, a formerly successful assassin who has lost his edge.
Greg Kinnear plays mild salesman Danny Wright who had recently had some hard knocks. On a business visit to Mexico City things are not going well and he decides to retreat to a bar to lick his wounds. There he has a conversation with an irritating customer, Julian Noble (Brosnan). Wright opens up to Noble about some downturns in his life and Noble can respond only with an off-color joke. It is not a very good start to a relationship. Things get worse later when the man admits to being a professional assassin, albeit one who has been faltering of late. Is this guy playing mind games or is he serious? Wright is at first fascinated, but this is not a man who he wants to let into his life. That may not be a choice Wright will allow him. Does he have more games planned or is he being really telling about his profession? Why would an assassin tell a stranger about his work?
Noble is not at all the James Bond type. Where Bond is suave, Noble is oblivious and uncouth. He is a child in a man's body and he really likes his deadly work. Wright is bemused, astounded, and mesmerized by this man both bigger and smaller than life.
In the second act Noble shows up at Wright's home several months later and Wright's wife (Hope Davis) finds she has exactly the same ambivalence to the killer that her husband had.
This is not really a thriller at all but a comedy of dialog and personality. The whole story could almost have been done as a stage play on a limited number of sets. The two men are really opposites. Kinnear is the reserved straight man and Brosnan is overflowing with too much personality. Shepard examines the appeal of the amoral life and some of the philosophy of matadors and other professional killers. One is never quite sure what point all this is making and ending is a bit of a letdown.
I cannot be as enthusiastic as many of the critics are, but this is certainly at least an original film. I rate it a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 6/10.
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