Illustration by Michael DiMilo
By Geoff Carter
The Real Me: Review of Hit Man
★★★★1/2
Some film genres are easier to define than others. Comedies make you laugh, horror movies scare the hell out of you, and romantic comedies make you laugh and cry. Recognizing some film genres is sort of like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s definition of pornography: “I know it when I see it.”
Most films are not cut from these cookie-cutter definitions of genre. Problemista is a film that crosses from comedy to fantasy to the surreal to social commentary. Get Out is part horror film, part social commentary, and part science fiction. Alien is another horror film/sci-fi hybrid. The recent releases of Ethan Coen’s Drive Away Dolls and Rose Glass’s Love Lies Bleeding seem to be heralding a new type of genre—lesbian noir.
Now there is Hit Man, a film that transcends expectations of both noir and traditional comedy, and which (with a dash of classroom philosophy and psychology) leads the viewer into existential questions of choice, destiny, and identity.
Mild-mannered Gary Johnson (Glen Powell—who also co-wrote the film) is a philosophy and psychology professor at the University of New Orleans who moonlights as a surveillance tech for the local police department. When Jasper (Austin Amelio), an undercover cop posing as a hit man is suspended, Gary is enlisted to replace him in a sting operation. During his conversation with the mark Gary describes in graphic detail how he disposes of a body’s head and fingertips, his inventiveness impressing both the mark and Claud (Retta) and Phil (Sanjay Rao), his colleagues.
It turns out Gary has a knack for getting his marks to trust him. Using his background in psychology, he carefully researches each murder-for-hire client and tailors a unique persona for each. He appears to prospective “clients” as a Russian hitman, a suave and well-tailored continental, a redneck, and Ron, a charismatic and confident persona he uses when he meets Madison (Adria Arjona), a woman in an abusive relationship who wants to get rid of her husband. Taken with her, Ron (Gary)—to the dismay of his colleagues—lets Madison off the hook, persuading her to try and reconcile with her husband.
She thanks Gary and eventually gets in touch with him, inviting him to a dog rescue event, where Gary (a cat person) realizes he could change and become a dog person, too. Gary also realizes that when he dons the Ron persona, his confidence and his attractiveness increases, as if the boundaries of his own personality are stretched. In short, he becomes (if not a new person) then a new iteration of himself.
The hit man narrative is intercut with scenes of Gary teaching his psychology and philosophy classes in which he explicitly addresses the elements of identity, the biological roots of social exclusion, and the conception of self, all of which pertain to his own personal growth through his extended stints as fake hit men.
Gary and Madison eventually become lovers, but things get complicated when they happen to run into Madison’s ex Ray (Evan Holtzman) outside a club. Ray threatens her and Gary has to pull a gun to make him desist. When Gary’s next assigned mark turns out to be Ray who is seeking a hit man to off Madison, Gary cleverly manipulates the situation so Ray can’t see him until he spills his guts. He then reveals himself to be Madison’s boyfriend. Ray storms out but Jasper smells a rat.
When Ray winds up dead, Gary confronts Madison, who confesses to killing him. When Jasper shows up at her apartment, expecting a payoff, things get dicey.
Hit Man is a refreshing take on the gangster/noir/thriller genre. It is thoughtful, intriguing, and genuinely funny—although the humor ranges from sort of a sitcom vibe with the surveillance team at the beginning to Powell’s hilarious renditions of stereotypical hit men. The leather-jacketed Russian, the obnoxious redneck, the ruthless professional, and Ron are tailored by Gary to his marks’ (and the viewers’) expectations.
The film also addresses questions of identity, growth, and self. At the beginning of the film, before he becomes the fake hit man for the police, Gary is a normal, unobtrusive, somewhat boring guy. He has two cats, Id and Ego (really), and is divorced. In one scene, he meets with his ex-wife Alicia (Molly Bernard) who tells him he should expand his horizons, that he is too staid and predictable in his habits.
Taking on the personas of hit men and convincing others (and himself) he is a dangerous and calculated killer foments a change in Gary. When he becomes Ron, his feigned confidence and charisma become real to the point where one coed in his class asks, “When did our teacher get so hot?”
Gary’s experiences bring up questions of whether identity is biologically or socially determined and whether if and how deeply a person can determine their own destiny. In short, can Walter Mitty become James Bond (or move closer to Bond) by simply acting like him? Of course, not everyone is a human chameleon like Gary Johnson, but the question of self-determination versus destiny and the predetermined elements of personality are static remain.
Hit Man, as evidenced in the closing credits, is based on a true story. Gary Johnson was a philosophy professor who did moonlight with the Houston police department by impersonating hit men. Apparently, he did have a contact he let go with whom he later became romantically involved. Although parts of the film are obviously fictionalized, the reality of this story is in and of itself compelling.
Hit Man is one of those films that is more than a hybrid of film genres. It is a great thriller, an incisive psychological profile, an ironic comment on social norms, and a subtle black comedy. Gary Johnson has to have been a dream role for Glen Powell. Not only is he playing two closely-related characters in depth, he also has the opportunity to portray a number of would-be hit men almost to the point of self-parody. It’s easy to see he’s having a great time.
As Madison, Adria Aronja is a sort of girl-next-door femme fatale. She is kind, vulnerable, sexy, manipulative, and—in the end, deadly. Aronja plays her with just the right degree of sweetness and calculation. Madison may be looking out for herself, but she never betrays Ron—or Gary.”
Hit Man is not only a fun watch but is also a thoughtful but accessible examination of self, society, and destiny. You can see it now on MAX.