The ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ star plays a nerdy professor who leads a secret life posing as an assassin in Richard Linklater’s twisty, entertaining film based on a true story.
By James Verniere/Boston Movie News
Actor of the moment Glen Powell, a prominent part of “Top Gun: Maverick” (2022), one-half of the recent hit rom-com “Anyone But You,” opposite a similarly-on-fire Sydney Sweeney, and soon-to-be seen in the summer reboot “Twisters,” plays the title role in Richard Linklater’s “Hit Man.” The film, which was co-written by Powell and Linklater, the Texas-born auteur of “Boyhood” (2014), “Before Midnight” (2013), and “A Scanner Darkly” (2006), is based on a true story by Skip Hollandsworth published in “Texas Monthly” about a Texas college teacher named Gary Johnson.
In the film, which is set in the present time, Johnson is a slightly nerdy Texas teacher of psychology and philosophy who invokes Nietzsche in opening scenes and drives home in his not-very-exciting Honda Civic to feed his cats, birds, and plants and eat alone in his kitchen. When he isn’t teaching, Gary works for the police as an electrician/computer tech and sometimes accompanies the cops on sting operations during which a police officer named Jasper (Austin Amelio, “The Walking Dead”) pretends to be a hit man and records people trying to hire him. The suspects are then arrested.
While Jasper is suspended, Gary’s police officer colleagues (Retta and Sanjay Rao) send Gary in to try him out. He’s a natural, changing his tone and personality to get suspects to let their guard down. Soon, Gary is trying out disguises and even accents. Oddly, Gary’s activities seem to mirror topics in his classroom regarding identity and how much individuals can change and mold themselves.
At the same time, Gary undergoes a personal transformation. In “Nutty Professor” style, he gets more confident, swaggery, and outgoing. Speaking of Freud, a young man named Monte (Jonas Lerway, “Satanic Panic”) tries to hire Gary to kill his mother. After meeting a beautiful suspect named Madison Masters (an appealing Adria Arjona, “Father of the Bride”), Gary, whose undercover name is Ron, becomes smitten and talks her out of hiring him to kill her abusive husband Ray (Evan Holtzman, TV’s “S.W.A.T.”). Gary’s police colleagues question his motives. A sexy romance between “Ron” and Madison blooms, of course. But is there any future for a relationship based on lies? Insert laugh here.
“Hit Man” is likably twisty, although Linklater fans will make more of it than it warrants. While he is no Alec Guinness, who plays eight characters in the highly-regarded 1949 Ealing comedy “Kind Hearts and Coronets,” Powell is amusingly protean as Gary/Ron. His make-up and accents get more outlandish (Get ready for ginger-haired, freckle-faced British Ron). Of course, Gary/Ron is not allowed to cross ethnic lines like English actor Peter Sellers once did.
Out on a date, Madison and “Ron” run into Ray. In character, Ron pulls a gun on him to shut him up. Madison and Ron then run into Jasper outside an ice cream shop. Bless her heart, Madison likes sexual cosplay. Gary’s ex-wife (Molly Bernard) expresses amazement at his new sideline as a “full-blown, undercover murder-stopper.” Then, someone turns up dead. Gary discusses executions in ancient societies with his students. “When did our professor get hot?” one sighs. “Hit Man” becomes less jokey and more film noir-like. How far will they go? Oh, what a tangled web we weave.
‘Hit Man’
Rating: R, Profanity, sexually suggestive scenes, and violence.
Cast: Glen Powell, Adria Arjona, Retta, Sanjay Rao, Austin Amelio.
Director: Richard Linklater
Writer: Linklater, Powell.
Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes
Where to watch: At the Coolidge Corner Theater and Alamo Drafthouse and streaming on Netflix starting June 7
Grade: B+
Boston Movie News 