Christian Bale, Brad Pitt and Tommy Wiseau walk into a diner, except they’re all being played by actor Glen Powell to amusing degrees. Powell, who broke out with the nimble-footed Netflix rom-com, Set It Up (2018), has steadily afforded himself the real estate to become Hollywood’s muscular heartthrob in films like Top Gun: Maverick (2022) and Anyone But You (2023), means business here. Directed by Richard Linklater – reuniting with Powell after Everybody Wants Some!! (2016) – Hit Man is first and foremost a stellar showcase for a young actor’s limitless love for the performing arts. In one scene, Powell’s Gary Johnson, who wears disguises and entraps people (for the local police) trying to get in touch with a killer-for-hire, talks about how “each arrest felt like a standing ovation.” Perhaps it’s fitting that the chaos in Linklater’s latest is fuelled by an artiste’s pride in what they do, with meticulous attention to detail, much like the director and actor.
Loosely adapted from a profile written by Skip Hollandsworth for the Texas Monthly in 2001 on an unassuming college professor of Philosophy, who would moonlight as a helper for the Houston police department, Hit Man is surprisingly introspective while being a fun romantic thriller. The central romance reminded me of Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight (1998). Johnson, a somewhat maladjusted nerd, seemingly satisfied in his mundane existence, gets a taste of his own potential when he takes on his first assignment as a ‘fake’ contract killer. Having audited similar performances for a while, Johnson appears to be a natural. His colleagues are impressed and creeped out by a chilling detail he describes for a potential ‘client’ about how he ensures none of his corpses’ fingerprints are detectable by the law enforcement. He says he chops their fingers and throws them every few miles on a long drive. Even he’s surprised by his own specificity. Maybe he has a serial-killer side to him, or he’s really good at inhabiting other personalities.
It’s all fun and games for Gary until trouble shows up in the form of a housewife, Madison (Adria Arjona), who is considering murdering her rich, abusive husband. Far from the bitter (almost farcical) characters he usually meets – and therefore able to customise his hitman persona for them accordingly – Gary meets Madison as the relaxed, assured Ron. Powell dials up the effortlessness to an eleven, ensuring Madison is giggling in no time. Their first conversation flows so naturalistically, it’s hard to imagine them as lines in a script. She’s confiding in him, he’s offering her some cool-guy advice, and before they know it she’s asking him what he does for a living! Madison realises her error and apologises for forgetting why they were meeting in the first place.
A still from ‘Hit Man’.
Arjona, who was excellent in Andor (2020), is perfect foil for Powell’s oozing charisma. What starts off as a clandestine affair, slowly (like it usually does in noirs) makes way for some tense moments, mistaken identities, a murder and a love story that might be the undoing of two clearly upstanding, law-abiding citizens.
Linklater and Powell meditate on the Freudian definition of the ‘self’ – torn between the Id (the impulsive part of your personality) and the ego (the conscious part of your personality). As Gary, is he simply playing the part of a ‘normal’ person because he’s conditioned himself to adhere to certain rules? And if he feels this freedom while doing what Ron does – is that even ‘acting’ or is that also who he is? What’s his true self – Gary or Ron?
Hit Man has shades of Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) and Barry (2018-2023) – but never quite gets as messy. The film also feels like director Linklater’s existential rumination over his own directorial ‘voice’, as he grapples with his own legacy as someone who has often worked out of the Hollywood set-up. Can he put himself out there and make something truly unexpected? Or does he adhere to this persona he’s crafted for himself over three decades? Despite his Coen-esque premise, Linklater showcases himself as an optimist here.
In the end, Hit Man should count as one of the boldest swings by a young actor. Powell plays his part like an orchestra conductor, dialling up parts of his many personas in crucial scenes like they were individual instruments, adding superficial tics to his ‘characters’, donning preposterous costumes, tattoos. Does that mean Gary is good at playing such parts, or are all these characters within Gary already? If Linklater and Powell are to be believed – personalities are fluid domains. One shouldn’t be too rigid towards new ideas of living. Evolution can be a gift, and we must all live with passion.
