Film Review
The Matador
Dir. Richard ShepardScr. Richard Shepard
Pierce Brosnan
Greg Kinnear
Hope Davis
Official Site - www.matadorthemovie.com
Matador is Pierce Brosnan's first post-Bond outing. He plays Julian Noble, a 'fatality facilitator' or hitman in this smart and sometimes very funny twist on a buddy-movie.
In Mexico City on an assignment, Noble is reminded that it is his birthday, something that he has completely forgotten. Faced with the realities of a life so detached from normality that even his own birthday didn't register with him sends Noble on a bender. Noble is what is becoming a bit of a movie staple these days; a clood-blooded killer in mid-life crisis. Gone are the days of Dirty Harry; cold and clinical and instead we have kilers with a dose of fragile humanity; After all it's only a 'job' not nine to five certainly, but just a job nonetheless.
Noble meets Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear) in a hotel bar and an unlikely friendship results. Wright is a crest-fallen businessman whose life is falling through the cracks. A long run of bad luck has been extended on his business trip to Mexico and he is falls quickly for Noble's blunt but very funny personna. Noble is a barrel of mixed metaphors and snappy repartee--confident and aggressive the opposite of Wright's meek and depressed manner. The film works because the roles get exchanged and half-way through the film Noble is drinking and fighting panic attacks and unable to fulfill his duties and so becomes a target for assassination himself. He turns to help from the ne person he regards as a 'friend,' Danny, whom he met briefly in Mexico and before you know it everyone is living happily ever after.
Much has been made of Brosnan's performance as the hard-drinking hit-man. He is everything that Bond is not, louche, crude and prone to speaking out of line and out of place--it might be that it is because we know Brosnan so well as the sophisticated spy that his performance seems so good here. Either way, Matador is a fun romp, lots of laughs and some intense moments of real humanity poking through. It is billed as a comedy suspense thriller--which tells tyou probably all you need to know.
In Mexico City on an assignment, Noble is reminded that it is his birthday, something that he has completely forgotten. Faced with the realities of a life so detached from normality that even his own birthday didn't register with him sends Noble on a bender. Noble is what is becoming a bit of a movie staple these days; a clood-blooded killer in mid-life crisis. Gone are the days of Dirty Harry; cold and clinical and instead we have kilers with a dose of fragile humanity; After all it's only a 'job' not nine to five certainly, but just a job nonetheless.
Noble meets Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear) in a hotel bar and an unlikely friendship results. Wright is a crest-fallen businessman whose life is falling through the cracks. A long run of bad luck has been extended on his business trip to Mexico and he is falls quickly for Noble's blunt but very funny personna. Noble is a barrel of mixed metaphors and snappy repartee--confident and aggressive the opposite of Wright's meek and depressed manner. The film works because the roles get exchanged and half-way through the film Noble is drinking and fighting panic attacks and unable to fulfill his duties and so becomes a target for assassination himself. He turns to help from the ne person he regards as a 'friend,' Danny, whom he met briefly in Mexico and before you know it everyone is living happily ever after.
Much has been made of Brosnan's performance as the hard-drinking hit-man. He is everything that Bond is not, louche, crude and prone to speaking out of line and out of place--it might be that it is because we know Brosnan so well as the sophisticated spy that his performance seems so good here. Either way, Matador is a fun romp, lots of laughs and some intense moments of real humanity poking through. It is billed as a comedy suspense thriller--which tells tyou probably all you need to know.