HIT MAN

This 2023 film directed by Richard Linklater went completely under my radar at the time, so discovering it now was like Christmas coming early.

It's described in Wikipedia as a 'romantic crime comedy', which is another way of saying that it's hard to categorise.  A comedy to begin with, it then becomes darker, so much so that at one stage I thought we were entering film noir territory, but I think overall it is best described as a black comedy.  I didn't detect a lot of romance but there is (spoiler alert) a fair bit of sexual heat.

It stars Glen Powell who also co-wrote.  I hadn't come across him before but based on this outing I shall certainly look out for him in future.  He has undeniable charm and star quality.

He plays Gary, a dull professor of psychology and philosophy who on the side helps the local police force with their sting operations, because Gary is a dab hand at electronics.  Then one day he gets thrust centre stage at short notice by taking over the job of pretending to be a hit man, and at turns out he's a natural at this so this becomes his full-time job on the side. 

What an unlikely setup I thought but apparently it's based on a real case of this happening.

The cop he replaces, Jasper, is not best pleased, which will have plot ramifications later.

But before we get to those we get some nice comedy as we see Gary taking on ever more ridiculous hit man personas tailored to each case.

Things take a more serious turn when Gary (or Roy as he calls himself) meets the attractive Madison who wants to have her abusive husband, Ray, killed.  Roy instead of getting her to incriminate herself on tape persuades her out of this course of action, and then surreptitiously starts a passionate affair with her.

When Ray is killed by Madison and we then learn that he had a valuable life insurance policy I began to think the film might be a clever take on 'Double Indemnity' given that Roy is so taken with Madison he does all he can to thwart the police efforts to get proof that she is the killer.  These efforts include a delightful scene when he is sent to try to get her confession on tape. 

It's all nicely twisty and involved, with Jasper trying to get to the bottom of what is going on. He does such a good job of this that Roy and Madison feel obliged to kill him - and then at the end we skip a few years to see them happily married with two children - so yes, a black comedy indeed.