Review: Hit Man

Hit Man, from arthouse darling Richard Linklater, tells the true-ish story of a "fake hitman" working for the New Orleans Police Department.Hit Man, from arthouse darling Richard Linklater, tells the true-ish story of a "fake hitman" working for the New Orleans Police Department.Watch the movie trailer here.Hit Man was based on a real-life story - a man called Gary Johnson who was a fake assassin, working for the New Orleans police force.The Richard Linklater touch is the arthouse director spent nearly 20 years turning it into a movie. The sort of film they don't make often these days.In real life, Gary Johnson - played perfectly here by Glen Powell, who also co-wrote it - is a rather colourless university lecturer in psychology.But in his spare time, he helps the police, working their hidden mics on undercover operations. In particular, he's involved in preventing murders. Clients who hire the fake hitman then find themselves in jail.One day, the regular fake hitman gets into trouble. Gary takes his place and proves to be a natural. He applies his psychological insights to give his would-be clients the hitmen of their fantasies.In a film like Hit Man, tone is everything. We're invited to like a man whose job is entrapping desperate people at the end of their tether.Mind you, most of these people are awful - greedy, petty, cowardly and deserving everything that's coming to them.Unlike Gary, who's often hilarious as a variety of fantasy hitmen - the leather-clad Russian gangster, the tattooed good old boy, the scar-faced Mafioso and the English Maggie Smith lookalike. All, it has to be said, far more interesting than Gary as himself.Then one day he breaks the unwritten law among hitmen - even fake hitmen. He falls in love with a client.Her name's Madison - Adria Arjona - and she wants to get rid of her controlling, arrogant husband.Gary plays "Ron" for Madison - tough and no-nonsense, the absolute opposite of beige, indecisive Gary - and he decides to help her rather than arrest her. Take that money and just leave your husband, he advises.His police minders are annoyed - particularly his predecessor Jasper, who wants his fake hitman job back.So now Madison and Gary - or rather Ron - are an item. And Gary finds himself becoming more and more like Ron at work too. His students start wondering "When did boring Mr Johnson get so hot?"Much of the appeal for Madison is her boyfriend's dangerous, secret job - the guns, the never-spoken-of murders, the cryptic passwords.So how will she react when she inevitably finds out it's all a fantasy?…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details