Susan Granger’s review of “The Matador” (The Weinstein Company)
If Pierce Brosnan’s droll, comically demented hit-man character seems like a James Bond parody, it’s no surprise. The Irish actor’s 007 days are over. What’s curious is that this low-budget film was made long before Brosnan knew that he’d been replaced by 37 year-old Daniel Craig.
Brosnan plays a sleazy, lonely mercenary, Julian Noble, who befriends a struggling, straight-laced salesman, Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear), at a hotel bar in Mexico City. Their unlikely relationship takes a bizarre twist when they attend a bullfight and level-headed Danny discovers what Noble actually does for a living. Six months and many margaritas later, Julian appears on Danny’s doorstep in suburban Denver, confessing to Danny and his demure wife (Hope Davis) that he’s having a nervous breakdown and needs help from his “only friend in the world.”
This choice of this gregarious yet pathetic “facilitator of fatalities” is a brave move on Brosnan’s part, although he did play a compromised spy in “The Tailor of Panama,” and he’s got an impressive variety of roles lined up for the future, including a kidnapper who tries to ransom a child. The image of him striding around clad only in a skimpy Speedo and cowboy boots is certainly indelible. And Greg Kinnear once again proves how adroit he is at subtle comedy.
Problem is: writer/director Richard Shepherd hasn’t really decided how to handle these two disparate, quirky characters he’s created and, as a result, the poignant, tongue-in-cheek, odd couple/buddy caper plot never attains the level of the far-better “Sexy Beast.” On the Granger Movie Gauge, “The Matador” is a sneaky, off-beat, satirically seedy 6 with a metaphorically symbolic title that illustrates Julian Noble’s cold-blooded, calculating killing skill.
