Hit Man

Director: Richard Linklater
Starring: Glen Powell, Adria Arjona, Austin Amelio, Retta, Sanjay Rao, Gralen Bryant Banks, Molly Bernard, Evan Holtzman
Running Time: 115 min.
Rating: R

★★★ ½ (out of ★★★★)

Hit Man finds director Richard Linklater again in top form, transforming a potentially clever premise into one of his most rewarding efforts in years. But even more importantly, its smart script provides an ideal acting showcase for Glen Powell, who we've already suspected has all the talent and charisma to emerge as a major movie star. That it hasn't happened yet is somewhat perplexing, but this brings him another step closer, further confirming his underappreciated range as an actor.

After building strong word of mouth on the festival circuit, Netflix's decision to sit on this film for a year caused understandable skepticism. But it's Linklater we're talking about, who somehow always manages to subvert expectations when adapting quirky, esoteric material. Similar to his 2011 crime comedy caper Bernie, it's loosely based on a Texas Monthly magazine article by Skip Hollandsworth. Except he aims higher this time, making for an even more fulfilling experience.    

Gary Johnson (Powell) is an ordinary, mild mannered psychology professor at the University of New Orleans who moonlights assisting police with undercover sting operations. But when sleazy cop Jasper (Austin Amelio) is suspended from the force, Gary's chosen to temporarily fill his position as a fake hitman, obtaining confessions and payments from suspects. Tailoring unique personas to each suspect, he quickly impresses co-workers Claudette (Retta) and Phil (Sanjay Rao) with both his acting and eventual conviction rate. 

When Gary adopts the cool, slick guise of "Ron" to extract a confession from a woman named Madison (Adria Arjona), he finds himself instantly attracted to her. She wants her abusive husband killed but their meeting seems more like a date, with him advising that she keep the money and start a new life. Criticized for letting a potential conviction slip through his fingers, Gary/Ron later begins secretly seeing Madison, raising the ire of her volatile ex. But as Gary attempts to conceal his actual identity from Madison and this relationship from police, an even larger problem emerges that will put his true feelings for her to the test.  

What's so clever about this script is how it constantly keeps us off balance, lulling us into thinking the plot will play out exactly how it usually does in a movie like this. Gary will become romantically entangled with Madison and her ex becomes a factor, but that's where the predictability ends. Linklater lays out his thesis in the opening minutes, with an awkward, bespeckled Gary dryly lecturing his disengaged psychology class about how people hide their true selves, instead projecting the persona of who society expects them to be. 

The question of whether anyone can really change lays the story's foundation, with Gary's ex-wife Alicia (Molly Bernard) very skeptical he has the capacity. But this new undercover police gig brings something out of the self-professed science geek and avid bird watcher he didn't even know existed. And after meeting Madison, the line between Gary and the more confident Ron becomes blurrier, eventually evaporating. 

The most memorable sequence is a montage of him at work, sliding in and out different disguises, personas and accents, resembling everyone from Tilda Swinton to Christian Bale's Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. There's a particular restaurant scene where we watch him in action from start to finish and it's sort of a revelation seeing how desperate suspects assume this total stranger will risk everything and commit murder for a bag of cash. But as Gary narrates in a sparse, effective voiceover, their minds are made up long before they call him. He just gives them that last little push.  

While discovering his psychology background provides the perfect tool for reading hapless, unsuspecting sting targets, he encounters one who breaks all convention. And the more Madison gets to know Ron the harder it becomes for him to tell her he's Gary, and even convince himself of the same. The enjoyment is in how Powell plays both sides, subtly revealing glimpses of each persona residing in the other. But reconciling both will prove to be his character's biggest challenge.  

Without giving away too much, the actual danger comes in the potential exposure of this relationship, but it's loads of fun watching the back and forth between a pair who practically ignite the screen with their chemistry. As strong as Powell is in a deceptively difficult role, the delightfully funny and expressive Arjona equals him, bringing a playful energy to the proceedings we don't often see in this genre. If he's a star on the cusp, she's one in the making, and their scenes together are a big reason why so much of this clicks. Austin Amelio also impresses as this slimy cop Jasper, who's either much dumber or smarter than he looks. 

A lesser film would ratchet up the violence and sight gags to grab our attention, creating an obvious predicament where our lead becomes an overnight action hero. But this operates on a more sophisticated level, with intelligently written characters engaging in an unpredictable chess game full of twists and turns. And much of that success can be traced to star and co-writer Powell, who gives multiple performances as a likable, seemingly milquetoast protagonist dragged into an increasingly dark, noirish situation. Arriving at a point where almost anything can happen, Hit Man explores the lengths some go to not only hide their identity from others, but themselves.