I’m not sure where exactly Glen Powell came from (Texas I guess?), but he’s certainly here now, looking like a love child of Matthew McConaughey and a bald eagle, and effectively playing the leading man in two recent broad-appeal films. And now he’s writing too? And pretty well? Maybe. Exactly how much he contributed to the script for the sharp new action comedy Hit Man is unclear. His co-pilot here is renowned writer/director Richard Linklater, so if he’s looking to claim writing credit, he may have chosen a less excellent collaborator; if you do a group project with the star student, everyone’s going to think you coasted. Either way, though, an A is an A.
Linklater, known for more conceptual movies like Boyhood, the dreamy Waking Life or the told-in-real-time Before Sunrise, has also done a comedy or two in School of Rock and Dazed and Confused, so this is not entirely new territory for him, and it reminds us of his range.
Obviously, this is meant to be on the fun-and-entertaining end of that range, and it excels on that front, but it also retains a little bit of the “your life can be what you want it to be” philosophizing found in Waking Life. Identity takes a front seat here, with Powell playing Gary Johnson, a part-time college philosophy professor who moonlights for the police department. In class, he speaks about “the self,” ponders its malleability, and cares for his cats, Ego and Id, in his sad little suburban home.
His police endeavors center around sting operations where unsuspecting folks attempt to hire a hitman to kill someone, only to find themselves in cuffs shortly after. Normally, he sits in the van as an assistant while another guy is undercover pretending to be said hitman, but one day, when the usual guy, Jasper, is suspended, Gary gets nominated to go in and act the part. He finds he has quite the gift for this playacting, and soon he’s given Jasper’s job, much to Jasper’s dismay.
Gary gets very into it, creating different personas based on his marks’ files and social media presences to be able to relate to them better, and he busts lots of people. The issues start when the alluring Madison (Adria Arjona) attempts to hire him to knock off her abusive husband. But like, look at her, right? Instead of busting her, he advises her to just try leaving her husband and starting a new life with the money she was going to pay him with. With Madison, Gary chooses a character named Ron who’s kind of like…Glen Powell? A smooth-talking, top-button-unbuttoned, shades-wearing, sexually competent man. His colleagues joke that they really like Ron (and are a bit thirsty for him). And Gary likes him too.
So when he gets a text from Madison inviting him to a dog meet-up, he jumps at the chance to see her, but also at the chance to be Ron again. I would say “sparks fly” but it goes straight to four-alarm fire, as they embark on an enormously spicy relationship featuring a buffet of smoldering looks from Arjona. Unfortunately, it’s not long before Gary finds out Madison wasn’t entirely honest when she told him she’d gotten a divorce (not that he'd been quite honest with her, either). On top of that, Gary’s workplace rival Jasper finds out there’s something going on with the two of them, which is not a good look and potentially great blackmail material.
So while this works as a high-end rom-com, it also works as a story of a somewhat pitiable dude (I mean he still looks like Glen Powell so I’m not going to cry any rivers for him) getting “unstuck” and becoming someone he really enjoys being–even if that manifests in the cliché Clark Kent-ish way of ditching one’s glasses, liking dogs more than cats, and not buttoning one’s shirt all the way up.
Powell does really well with the difficult task of playing a character who’s constantly playing another character (some of them pretty hilarious). His charisma, while not yet on the level of a Pitt or a Clooney, is undeniably enough to serve as a sturdy pylon for a successful movie. His recent ascent feels similar to McConaughey’s, with whom he shares his Texas roots and all-American looks, but we’ll have to see him in a more serious role or two before we really compare.
For her part, Arjona is electric. She vibrates with energy in the same way she did in Andor, but this time it’s less militant and more sensual. Her chemistry with Powell was more a result of her performance than his. She’s going to have more parts coming her way soon if she wants them.
Prayers up for this one after “Fall Guy” didn’t make the waves it had hoped to despite Ryan Gosling’s considerable clout. It has enough quality to get some word-of-mouth momentum, and it doesn’t require a lot of brain power to appreciate. Go see it before it streams (which will be soon because Netflix).
