Hit Man

Synopsis:  A professor becomes a fake hit man for police stings.

How malleable is personality? It’s a question that Professor Gary Johnson asks himself and his students. He expounds on Freud’s theories of our conscious and unconscious minds. Stuff like: your id wants to do what it wants, your superego keeps telling you the things you should or shouldn’t do, and your ego tries to reconcile the id and superego; deciding whether to, say, pilfer or cheat or eat the last cookie at the party.

While the prof lives to excavate the mind, his students  just look at him blankly during lectures.  One guy, snarks to another student that the prof has a cheap car. No matter, Gary seems content enough with his quiet evenings at home with his microwaveable meals and cats, Id and Ego. (If he gets another feline, their name is a fait accompli.) The professor has all sorts of cerebral pursuits, but his interpersonal skills may be lacking. Still friendly with his ex-wife, she gently advises him to get a therapist. And a girlfriend.

Gary moonlights as a sound technician for the New Orleans Police Department. We see him working in a van alongside a couple of cops (played by Retta and Sanjay Rao), monitoring the wire of another cop, Jasper (Austin Amelio). It’s a sting operation in which an officer posing as a hit man meets prospective clients; people who are looking for someone to kill a rival or an ex. Professor Gary is about to get a lot busier. But first…

Glen Powell is Prof. Gary. He’s the actor who played a hot shot pilot & half-naked beach football player in Maverick. Also, played a cocky love interest & all-naked hiker in the rom-com–what was it? Not You Again! Nope…Anyone But You. (The titles of rom-coms are pretty tossed-off, right?) So, if you keep up with movies, and I know you do, you’ll recognize the star on the rise with his golden-WASP-god looks and considerable screen charisma.

Glen Powell deserves credit for effectively toning down his rizz to play a mild-mannered polymath. The character is kind of a dweeb. But he has a Clark Kent/Superman thing going on, wherein we’re not supposed to notice his finely-chiseled features when he wears unflattering glasses. Onto a fateful day…

Another day doing surveillance work is suddenly upended when Jasper, the usual fake hit man, is suspended for some off-duty infraction. Scrambling to save the operation, Gary’s cop vanmates plead with him to play the hit man. No way! says Gary. Until they persuade him: It’ll be easy for you! You already know what to say.  Practically shoved out of the van, he crosses the street and into a diner where the client waits. In spite of his nerves, he’s able to tap into a cold-as-ice persona.  He knows he’ll have to get the client talking. Basically, they have to say kill so & so and hand over some cash as payment. Newbie Gary gets the job done. Phew!

Gary surprises himself by agreeing to continue as a fake hit man. He gets into researching the clients ahead of time, deciding what kind of character his lowlife customers will respond to. Maybe he has a latent thespian bent, because he really gets into adding fake scars, tattoos, messed-up teeth, and wigs. One time he’s a good old boy, another time, a black leather coat’d Russian assassin. But what’s even more surprising than his transformations are that so many people are looking to have rivals and exes murdered. Scary!

Professor Gary as a hit man is getting results and it’s boosting his ego. He’s even getting a little swagger into his civilian life; better haircut, better clothes & ditching the glasses. Hello, Glen Powell!

GP is a certain type of Texas man, bright with laidback charm and a carpe diem vibe. Often from, or migrating to, Austin.  Like Matthew McConaughey, Powell went to University of Texas and looks likely to be found living it up diving into Barton Springs or swigging a beer at a live music club on Sixth Street. Which is a perfect fit, because this based-on-a-true-story happened in Houston and director Richard Linklater is a through and through Texan. But…

The action is relocated to New Orleans. Dang! It was cheaper to film there. In Texas, business is booming, so they aren’t inclined to do filmmakers any favors, it seems. Too bad. At least they could’ve made the place they did shoot, New Orleans, show its personality, but no, nothing specific for us moviegoers to enjoy. At least the story is intriguing…

We’re pulling for this good guy to weasel out of tight situations. And looking like Glen Powell has its advantages in the dating world. Just when Gary looks to be at the top of his game, an attractive woman, Madison (Adria Arjona) takes notice of him. When he meets her, he has a decision to make: will he be Prof Gary or hit man Ron, a smooth alpha male?

And what of Madison? Our fake hit man meets a woman who is hot and sweet. When he tells her his work requires him to be sort of a lone wolf, she says a fun time is all she’s looking for. Adria Arjona makes the best of a character whose number one priority seems to be making herself appealing to the man of her choice.

And while the professor’s personality may be changing as he takes a walk on the wild side, are his values changing too? Whether they are or not, he better be ready to take on dangerous people who lay in wait. He’ll need his wits, because he can’t coast on his Glen Powell looks with everyone.

I’d like to leave you with a pearl of wisdom from Gary’s fake hit man… In one scene, we follow a client into a diner where he’s scheduled to meet the hit man. When the guy approaches the appointed booth, he stops short. Gary is manspread, savoring a forkful of fruit pie. Nervous to plunge into business, he fumbles for small talk: How’s the pie?  With a wolfish grin, our fake hitman eyes him and declares: All pie is good pie.

Yeah, it’s easy to find good pie down south. But, more to the point, Gary’s double life has opened him up to a whole host of pleasures that were all around him, but invisible until he changed up his personality.

Just know, no matter your personality, you can always enjoy some good pie.

P.S. Enjoy the scene where the protagonist uses his smartphone to get out of a seemingly impossible predicament.

Movie Loon’s Movie Review Shortcut:

Grade:  B+

Cut to the Chase: A rollicking good summer movie.

Humor Highlight:   The clips of hit man “characters” meeting with clients.