Minor Linklater but fun: Hit Man reviewed

Richard Linklater’s Hit Man is a minor Linklater but a minor Linklater is still an event. Also, after all those contemplative, existential films (Boyhood, the Before trilogy), who can blame him for letting his hair down with a sexy rom-com thriller that’s not concerned with deep questions. Though the film doesn’t add up to much, it is ‘based on a somewhat true story’ and it is a fun ride – somewhat.

The ‘somewhat true story’ is extraordinary, even if it’s only the starting point. The person it’s based on is Gary Johnson, who died in 2022, just before filming began. He was a Houston college professor (psychology) who also worked part-time for the police as an undercover (fake) hit man. He’d pose as an assassin, meet up with those in search of someone to eliminate their husband/wife/rival/whomever, and entrap them. (He was responsible for 70 arrests.)

Prior to the sting, he would research his victims zealously, and invent appropriate characters and disguises for their meeting, hence his reputation as ‘the Laurence Olivier of his field’. Here, he is played by Glen Powell, who co-wrote the script with Linklater. We first meet this Gary while he is lecturing his students, perhaps a little too conveniently, on the nature of self. Do we each have one authentic, hardwired self? Can we change? If we pretend to be someone else for long enough, can we become that person? You couldn’t accuse Linklater of not setting out his stall.