With Hit Man, director Richard Linklater returns to a Texas Monthly article for inspiration, as he did with 2012’s Bernie. This time, the based-on-fact story centers on Gary Johnson (Glen Powell), a Louisiana philosophy professor who poses as a hit man on the side for the local police department, helping to arrest would-be murder accomplices when they try to hire his services. Like Bernie—another tale with death on its edges—Linklater paints this potentially grim story in bright hues and broad comic strokes. When Gary falls for a suspect (Adria Arjona) who tries to hire him to kill her husband, Hit Man takes on rom-com contours, then turns into a daytime noir. It becomes more interesting as it goes along (and gets slightly darker), even if it never entirely works as a cohesive project. Powell, who had a breakout part in Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some!!, co-wrote the script with Linklater, and the film mostly feels fashioned for him to make a play to be the next Brad Pitt—a hunk with the ability to pull off quirky, comic characters. But as Gary donned more wigs and accents for his various assignments, I found myself cringing more often than laughing. Meanwhile, as “Ron” —the sexy contract killer who meets Arjona’s Madison—he pretty much plays Glen Powell. All of this means there’s no real human at the heart of the performance; even Gary is just another Character, a nerdy, cat-loving lecturer. (Contrast this with Jack Black’s moving, deeply humane title turn in Bernie.) Still, Powell and Arjona have real chemistry (as performers, if not as believable characters); Retta and Sanjay Rao provide some spiky comic relief as Gary’s police colleagues; and Linklater obsessives will find plenty of pet themes to explore, especially around the idea of personal identity. “Seize the identity you want for yourself,” Gary tells his students during one of his classroom lectures. Hit Man literalizes that mantra, to mildly amusing effect.
(6/12/2024)
