Getting one ascending star to lead an indie movie is a stroke of good fortune. Getting a pair of them is like completing a Hail Mary for a touchdown. Hit Man pulls off that euphoric miracle play with its call sheet-topping duo of Glen Powell and Adria Arjona. The delicate balancing act of Richard Linklater's darkly comedic romantic crime thriller about a nerdy college professor (Powell) who moonlights as a fake hitman-for-hire for the New Orleans Police Department whose entire operation gets suddenly upended when he meets a woman (Arjona) who wants to kill her estranged husband (Evan Holtzman) probably doesn't work without actors that don't have the chops to handle the array of notes this wacky script (penned by Linklater and Powell himself) plays. Powell juggles being a soft-spoken, philosophical guy and a suave, eccentric chameleon that adapts to whatever situation he's placed in with complete ease-often blurring the lines between his character Gary Johnson and the personas Gary creates to catch his "clients" redhanded committing a crime while Arjona puts a modern spin on a classic noir femme fatale archetype by making Madison Masters a woman that is just as mysterious and confounding as she is charming and curious. They both do such an excellent job of embodying hurt people that have walled themselves off from others as a defense mechanism and all of the great and bad shit that happens when those walls come crashing down and vulnerability comes pouring out while also trying to reckon with the guilt of the damaging lies that are hiding right beneath these powerful truths.
As great as they are as individual performers, what they do together is superhuman. There's chemistry between actors like what Powell himself has had with some of his past love interests like Sydney Sweeney and Zoey Deutch and then there's CHEMISTRY like what he was with Arjona. From the moment Gary and Madison lay eyes on each other for the first time in a diner, there's this easy yet explosive energy between them that is downright overwhelming. In the early stages of the movie, Gary has been shown to be completely uncrackable during his sting operations. His wits, calm under pressure and gift for putting people at ease to the point where they're comfortable enough to openly admit they want to pay to have somebody murdered has led to dozens of busts. Then he meets Madison, and his entire well-oiled playbook goes out the window. He actively gets her to avoid incriminating herself, engages in small talk and worst of all, eventually agrees to see her again outside of a professional context.
The diner scene and everything that follows it wouldn't be at all convincing if the connection wasn't so strong between the performers. I'm not one of these "nobody has chemistry in the movies anymore!" people, but what is going on between Powell and Arjona here is special. They have the kind of immediate, undeniable spark that everybody aims to have when they make a romantic movie but almost never actually find. There's a playfulness, passion and sense of yearning in the air during their interactions that shows off the depth of their connection in ways that words alone never could. There's never even a hint of doubt as to why these people are willing to jeopardize everything else in their lives for each other. Considering how they met, they aren't unafraid of any messiness that comes along, they're full-on embracing it and no amount of water in the world could possibly put out the flames that exist between them. Apologies in advance to any other romantic movies released in the near future. The chemistry bar has been raised and it's going to take some serious effort to reach it, let alone clear it.
The slickness of Hit Man's ambitious genre mashup and exploration of fearless self-discovery in the face of danger gets a little cute for its own good with an ending that's both too convenient and silly for an otherwise pretty grounded movie. Seeing something that is otherwise such a good time stumble late is a bit disheartening, but it's hardly the first noir-inspired movie to hurt itself with a weak ending, so in a weird way it might make the homage stronger. Alas, its poor finale is just a small bump in the road for this great little movie that is probably the best thing Netflix has released on their platform in 6 months and the loudest possible way for Powell and Arjona to announce that they are the real fucking deal.
Grade: B+
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