Summary
- Hit Man
struggles to balance comedy and romance, lacking tension and character development for a satisfying conclusion. - The lack of a clear threat in the film weakens the danger factor and leads to an unconvincing resolution.
- Unlike
Love Lies Bleeding
,
Hit Man
fails to establish character flaws early on and build tension towards the climax.
Hit Man dropped on Netflix on June 7, 2024, and quickly found its spot in the streamer’s Global Top 10 list. Much like its protagonist, Gary (Glen Powell), the film has two distinct sides that it tries to marry. On the one hand, it’s a screwball comedy that paints its two leads as charming, sympathetic characters. On the other hand, it’s an edgy romance that turns the tables on the depiction of those leads in the final act.
Now, make no mistake – this duality was intentional. Director Richard Linklater proclaimed that Hit Man was his answer to the “infantilization” of modern movies. He lamented the fact that cinema nowadays tends to ignore the complex reality of adult life. Still, adult or not, the film struggled to pull off this nuance. There was a lack of rising tension or character development, and so the big finale just ended up being jarring to a lot of viewers.
The Lack of a Threat in Hit Man
Hit Man is about a college professor who moonlights as a fake hitman for the NOLA police department for some extra dough. This outrageous but true story sees Gary Johnson as his hitman persona, Ron, meeting Madison (Adria Arjona) when she’s at rock bottom in an abusive relationship. Her down-to-earth vibe disarms him, causing him to break character. Rather than stick to the script that the police usually have him run through, Gary persuades Madison to escape her old life and start over instead. She does, and they begin a whirlwind romance that, while they know it could prove problematic, they don’t predict will put them in danger.
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The premise is strong, but the film failed to make the danger seem all that dangerous and provided the world’s flimsiest resolution. For example, we only get two scenes with Ray, Madison’s ex, before she kills him. And, in the first of those scenes, Gary manages to adequately fend him off. So, we no longer have any reason to see Ray as any sort of a threat. In the second of those scenes, when Ray is about to hire “Ron” but is ultimately scared off into just taking care of business himself, we still aren’t worried. Not only does Gary have a weapon, but Gary and Madison could simply relocate. By now, there’s been basically no dramatic tension, and we’re two-thirds of the way into the movie.
That Controversial Hit Man Ending
In contrast to Ray, Jasper (Austin Amelio) at least had been a much more convincing threat. He was pretty clownish, but the conflict was there. First, he had spotted Gary and Madison on a date. Then, after Ray wound up dead, he tried to trap them in the Notes app scene. Finally, just when the audience thinks the couple got off Scot-free, he shows up at Madison’s place, ready to confront them.
However, at least when Madison killed Ray, she had the excuse of earnestly believing he would’ve done the same to her. Thus, her characterization as a person only capable of killing when there’s an imminent threat of violence is still intact. When she poisons Jasper, on the other hand, there is no threat. Jasper is blackmailing her out of money that wasn’t even hers in the first place.
Hit Man truly dives off the deep end here because rather than reacting with shock and horror, Gary joins forces with her. He makes some speech about how Jasper was a jerk and, therefore, he deserves to die. Many viewers found this messaging challenging, but this could’ve been so easily resolved by giving the film a campier tone from the get-go. Or by showing more instances where Madison and Gary chose the most morally reprehensible path. That way, the audience is living in a world in which this poorly justified murder aligns with what we know about them already.
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Take the film Love Lies Bleeding. Like Hit Man, Love Lies Bleeding is an edgy action/romance that features two leads on a sort of “one thing led to another” murder spree. Unlike Hit Man, however, the character flaws in this Bonnie and, well, Bonnie duo were on display from the beginning. Then, the tension built up to the climax in a believable manner – the increasing frequency of abuse of Lou’s sister Beth, Jackie’s increasing dependency on performance-enhancing drugs… Finally, Love Lies Bleeding‘s bizarre ending didn’t come as a shock to the system because there was visual foreshadowing in all the shots throughout of Jackie’s roided-out muscles. However, despite all its flaws, Hit Man has found an audience on Netflix and is yet another major success for star Glen Powell. Hit Man is streaming on Netflix.
