Martin's Musings

Richard Linklater’s latest film, Hit Man, deserved better.

Starring Glen Powell in his umpteenth breakthrough performance, it tells the story of Gary Johnson, a dweeby college professor in New Orleans, who bores his students with lectures about philosophy and psychology. As a side hustle, Gary moonlights as a technical adviser for sting operations alongside police officers Claudette and Phil (Retta and Sanjay Rao).

Then, one day, Gary is asked at the last minute to pose as a hit man after undercover cop Jasper (Austin Amelio) is suspended for misconduct. His assignment is to entrap someone looking to hire him by getting the client to tell Gary their intentions. To everyone’s surprise, Gary is good at it and he settles into the role quite easily. Or should I say roles, since he keeps doing it, and with every job, he adopts a different persona, amusingly changing his name, his attire, his hair, and his attitude. 

Complications arise when, posing as a cool contract killer named “Ron,” Gary immediately hits it off with a hottie named Maddy (Adria Arjona), who’d like Ron to off her abusive husband. Maddy and Ron’s first interaction starts off as a business meeting, but it’s clear they’re both into each other, and somewhere along the way, it turns into a date.

I won’t spoil any of the twists or turns that result from this, but suffice it to say, it’s here that the film’s main premise of self-discovery really takes off. As Gary keeps shifting between personas in order to pursue a secret relationship with Maddy, the lines begin to blur and it’s unclear to him and to others who he is at any given time. Everyone seems to like Ron more than Gary — even Gary. Heck, even his students begin to pay attention more when they realize their professor has gotten better looking and more confident. So, which identity will eventually win out?