Featuring a laugh-out-loud comedy, sizzling romance and a dark crime story, this film has it all.
A common movie complaint you often hear is that a film is “muddled” – that it tried to blend too many genres or ideas that viewers ended up confused about what it was actually trying to say in the first place.
So when a movie can successfully shift fluidly between several different tonalities while exploring a variety of different themes, it should be applauded.
Such is the case with the Netflix 2024 flick Hit Man, which is easily one of the most surprising thriller movies of recent years.
Inspired by the life of Gary Johnson – though the film is tellingly described as only a “somewhat true story” – it stars Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick), who co-wrote the script with his frequent collaborator, director Richard Linklater (Boyhood, School of Rock).
Powell plays Gary, depicted in the movie as a mild-mannered professor of psychology and philosophy at the University of New Orleans.
Also a wiz with all things technology, he supplements his income by working for the police setting up recording devices to assist in sting operations.
These operations often involve undercover detectives pretending to be hitmen. This is to weed out people seeking such services before arresting them, thus preventing potential future murders.
When one of the cops named Jasper (an absolutely scene-stealing Austin Amelio) is suspended for brutality, Gary is suddenly and unwillingly plunged into the role of playing an assassin.
To the shock of the police, the professor is actually brilliant at this and is asked to play hitmen in many more sting operations.
Gary loves the work, believing it gives him a special insight into human nature that sparks his psychology and philosophy interests. He even begins donning several disguises, tailoring his hitmen personas to suit each person looking to hire him.
However, when the professor falls in love with Madison (Adria Arjona, Triple Frontier), a woman seeking to have her abusive husband killed, he finds himself bending the rules to spend more time with her – becoming entangled in a web of deceit in the process.
Hit Man is essentially split into three different parts, each with its own genre.
The first is a fish-out-of-water comedy, deriving its humour from the nebbishy Gary being forced to play it cool while being in the company of a whole host of would-be murderers from every walk of life.
These include notably a suburban housewife, a teen wanting to kill his mom (he offers to pay Gary in PS5 games), a rapper, vengeful husbands and wives, and many more.
And for each one, Gary comes up with hilariously convoluted disguises – two of which see Powell seemingly doing impressions of American Psycho and Tilda Swinton.
The second part of the story is more of a rom-com with Gary and Madison falling for each other.
Gary manages to talk Madison out of killing her husband – in the process, getting the police off her back.
This is before he starts to date her, all the while she still believes him to be the special hitman persona he created for her – a cooler, more self-assured version of himself named Ron.
At first, they mainly meet at her house to hook up. However, upon being spotted out together by various acquaintances, their blossoming romance takes a dark turn – switching up the film unexpectedly once again into more of a modern twist on an old-timey noir.
In particular, Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice feel like touchstones.
While in lesser hands, a movie balancing the warring elements of broad comedy, sizzling romance and dark murder plots could be a disaster – somehow Linklater and Powell pull it off with aplomb.
The pair basically used the real-life story of Gary Johnson – who was a college teacher who worked as a fake contract killer for the police – as a jumping-off point for the ideas they wanted to explore, mainly relating to concepts around identity, self and passion.
Powell’s Gary is often seen lecturing about these topics in school, while a conversation he has with an ex (Molly Bernard) early on – who is also an expert in these areas – lays out the film’s themes.
As she explains:
“I’ve been reading a lot recently about how researchers are finding that people can change their personalities well into their adulthood.
“The five traits that make up personality: extroversion, openness to experience, emotional stability, agreeableness and conscientiousness. They can all be altered within just a few months.
“You have to embody the trait rather than just think about it. It’s like the ‘as if’ principle, where you behave ‘as if’ you are the person you want to be, and then pretty soon you might realise… that is you.”
While Gary is dubious of this, the more he pretends to be Ron – spurred on by his attraction to Madison – the more his personality fundamentally changes into Ron’s, in the process getting involved in the type of activity a hitman may get up to.
Though Linklater and Powell’s movie is positively brimming with ideas, they all coalescence – resulting in a story that winds up feeling simultaneously surprising if inevitable in hindsight – a winning combination.
Also helping to offset any potential tonal whiplash is the always offbeat writing – with Gary’s narration often summing up the movie’s many crazy scenarios through a quirky, academic lens.
Plus, Powell, Arjona and Amelio’s performances do a lot to help keep the train on tracks – each delivering incredible multi-layered turns, always radiating wry comedy even as their characters and the plot take a sinister turn.
In particular, it was a stroke of genius by Powell to write such a plum part for himself – one that allows him to play both nerd and hunk and almost everything in between.
If you had any doubt of the rising star’s range, do yourself a favour and check out Hit Man, streaming on Netflix now.
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