The Matador (DVD)

...friends. Drunk and alone in the hotel bar, he strikes up an unlikely friendship with conservative businessman Danny. It isn't long before the hard-drinking hit-man is embroiling his new straight-arrow friend in his murky business.

Writer/director Richard Shepard has put together one of the inkiest black comedies of recent years with this tail of an assassin at the end of his tether. The main protagonist isn't so much an anti-hero as ...
...no sucky-f*cky." As if it's the most normal thing in the world. It isn't until he takes a moment's pause that he realises how isolated he is and that's when the humanity peeps through as he dissolves into an alcohol-sodden lump. He's cocky and should be really unlikeable, but there's something about him that has you rooting for him. He makes real leaps as a character; learning about real life outside his work and learning to care about people ... more

Burnt-out assassin Julian has a panic attack and bungles a job. Finding himself in Mexico City on his birthday, he realises he has no friends. Drunk and alone in the hotel bar, he strikes up an unlikely friendship with conservative businessman Danny. It isn't long before the hard-drinking hit-man is embroiling his new straight-arrow friend in his murky business.

Writer/director Richard Shepard has put together one of the inkiest black comedies of recent years with this tail of an assassin at the end of his tether. The main protagonist isn't so much an anti-hero as a totally anti-social-hero. Julian is a written as a man with no social skills and no off switch. It doesn't matter what you do, you can't stop him spewing out politically incorrect bon-mots. Of being in Mexico, he says "I hate these catholic countries; all blushy-blushy and no sucky-f*cky." As if it's the most normal thing in the world. It isn't until he takes a moment's pause that he realises how isolated he is and that's when the humanity peeps through as he dissolves into an alcohol-sodden lump. He's cocky and should be really unlikeable, but there's something about him that has you rooting for him. He makes real leaps as a character; learning about real life outside his work and learning to care about people other than himself. In reality Danny should be very bland, but is so warm-hearted that you can't help but like him. The narrative is straightforward enough, though there are some concessions to today's post-modern thrillers. These come as retrospective blank-filling, where the narrative skips ahead and you return to key moments to show what really happened. It's become a common device, but thankfully isn't overused here. The dialogue runs along at breakneck pace, usually with Julian running off at the mouth as others try to get a word in edgeways. And he has an awful lot of uncensored conversation stopping one-liners like "I woke up in a pile of donkey sh*t."

Shepard's direction takes a playful attitude to the material. He uses spy movie standards such as globe-trotting montages, sniper-scope views and set-ups of various missions, but undercuts them with a hero that looks and dresses like 70s porn star. The ability to slice any apparent tension and to change the mood of a scene abruptly but with humour are the keys to Shepard's direction. His comic timing is great - interrupting Danny and Bean's love-making with a tree falling on their house, for example, or any one of Julian's thoughtless off-the-cuff remarks. There are some moments that are a touch off the wall, like when Julian's alarm clock actually screams at him. But he never allows the punch-lines to run on too long and keeps the action clipping along with snappy editing. He denotes changes of location with huge subtitles and rounds off events with slow fades to black like a 70s spy thriller, which is what he's poking fun a throughout. At times his choice of palette resembles a Pedro Almodovar movie - all eye-searing primary colours and hideous patterns. But that's as much to do with the setting in Mexico as a conscious decision. At other times it looks more like a real thriller because of the use of shadows (in Vienna, for example) or sepia tones (in Manila) and the occasional use of voice-over narration and flashback. There are one or two aspects of the movie that smack of film school artifice; like the use of a fish-eye lens when shooting Julian's breakdown in the Philippines. But overall, the film coasts by on balls alone - it's like that kid at school that knows they're different but doesn't give a damn and won't make any concessions to anybody else's taste. The result is a cracking hour and a half of crude but fun black comedy with enough action to keep you on your toes.

If you want to blow your reputation as a smooth-talking superspy out of the window, you can't do much better than walking through a crowded hotel foyer sporting a porn-star 'tache, Speedos and a pair of cowboy boots before dropping into a shark-infested pool. It's a bravura performance from former Bond Pierce Brosnan, that much like his role in "The Tailor of Panama" shows the rather less savoury side of espionage. It also allows Brosnan to showcase his comic talents and he grabs the opportunity with both hands. He clearly delights in playing a man who is lewd and lascivious, rude, stupid, crass and utterly lacking in the social graces. His comic timing is bang on the money and his capacity for sleaze outstanding, though hardly surprising considering how pervy his Bond was.

Greg Kinnear plays the straight man very well to Brosnan's high camp theatrics. As salesman Danny, he is a mousy average Joe who lives for his wife and company. He's desperate for excitement and a sense of controlling his own destiny, so you can understand why he gravitates towards Julian. He's a trusting type that allows himself to be led down a very dark path by his new friend. Hs physical imitation of the hit-man is very funny and Kinnear has a nice light touch when it comes to the comedy. Hope Davis is given short shrift by the script as Danny's doting wife Bean. But when she is on screen she has great timing and brings a quirky sparkle to the proceedings. Philip Baker Hall is as solid as ever as hit-man go-between Mr Randy, bringing a no-nonsense attitude to the part.

The soundtrack is an eclectic mix of tunes from all over the place. The whole film kicks off with The Clash's "Town Called Malice" and spins through such unlikely bedfellows as "In the Wee Small Hours" and "Heat of the Moment". Perhaps the most fitting track though is Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual" that fits Julian's brash lifestyle. The score by Rolfe Kent riffs on traditional spy film motifs, using synthesizers and electrical guitar twiddles when we first see Julian on the job in Mexico. But his use is more of a dig in the ribs of the genre than a serious stab at it. He uses glockenspiel, percussion and rising strings to build tension as the assassin starts to fall apart. And to reference the locale we get sections of Spanish guitar and traditional Mexican brass. But Julian doesn't earn any more spy music until he's back on top of his game, when creeping flute motifs waft in before a full-bodied brass and harpsichord arrangement.

Considering the relatively small nature of the movie, budget wise, you get plenty of bang per buck. There are some decent pyrotechnics and the gunmanship is spot on. As is the costume design that has Brosnan dressed as a seedy cross between a lounge lizard and a 1970s Columbian drug baron. And whoever suggested the nasty moustache should get an award - it's the icing on the cake for the character.

"The Matador" is a deeply irreverent dig at the spy film genre with a career-defining performance from Pierce Brosnan. Julian reads like a grotesquely distorted mirror image of James Bond and Brosnan's unbridled glee at playing the part carries the film, though the sharp script and snappy direction help. It's definitely one to check out if you like your humour dark. But be warned, there are a lot of profanities and nasty references to sex.
 

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