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Killer
Cynical hit man Mick is tiring of his job and asks his boss George for time off. However, George gives him the assignment of his life, prompting Mick's soul-searching to reach new heights. Mick is asked to kill sultry Fiona, who owes George money and claims she wants to die. But as Mick spends time with her, he finds himself falling for her.
Release : | 1994 |
Rating : | 5.9 |
Studio : | Republic Pictures (II), Keystone Film Company (II), |
Crew : | Art Direction, Production Design, |
Cast : | Anthony LaPaglia Mimi Rogers Matt Craven Peter Boyle Monika Schnarre |
Genre : | Drama Thriller Romance |
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Best movie of this year hands down!
Admirable film.
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
I saw this picture under the title "Bulletproof Heart", and thought it a better description of the story than "Killer", the way it's listed here on IMDb. See this one for Mimi Rogers' performance, she'll have you guessing every step of the way with her character Fiona, a doomed con artist who's resigned to an assassin's attempt on her life. When he shows up, Mick (Anthony LaPaglia) becomes a conflicted pawn in a weird cat and mouse game in which he begins to question who the real victim might be in the whole charade.You see, Mick has that existential thing going for him in which he questions everything about his life right down to it's very core. He's one of these guys who philosophizes about the meaning of meaning; as a politician he would have been right at home as a member of Bill Clinton's cabinet. I was actually kind of surprised his contact George (Peter Boyle) wound up talking him into the hit on Fiona. Maybe it was just George's earnest plea to take the job - "Forgive me for asking you to whack somebody, but the last time I looked, you were a friggin' assassin".The capper to this caper turns out to be Mick's erstwhile friend, partner and all around schmuck who turns the table on the viewer at the end of the picture with an unlikely coming of age as a professional assassin himself. Sorry to say, I think it was probably his last job. I'm pretty sure once Mick managed to compose himself, he might have taken on his next self imposed contract gratis.
It has been a while since I've seen this movie. But I have some recollection of what goes on in it. Basically, a hit-man (Lapaglia) is given his next assignment, a woman(Rogers) who has stolen from the mob. But when they meet he finds that she is expecting him and prepared for the inevitable. She seduces him and he ends up falling for her and so finds it hard to complete the assignment. What follows is (what I think) a crisis of conscience for Lapaglia. Rogers is stunningly seductive in this and seems to relish the sexy role. This is a movie that made me stand up and take notice of Rogers and I would recommend you see it just for her performance. There are too other main carachters in this. The guy who gave the assignment and a bungling idiot of a "friend". But I do not want to give away too much as there is an interesting and major twist near the end involving one of these people. For what I would describe as a psychological drama, the acting is very understated and, considering the title, action seems to be kept to the minimum required. But it is a thinking person's film. For me it was more about a crisis of conscience, because even though he develops feelings for the woman he's supposed to take out, he is from an emotionally detached world and may never have known true love. But somehow she got inside his head. And there is an issue that she may want the inevitable to happen but he has developed a fondness for her. I enjoyed this film. It is thought provoking. My judgement: see it and make up your own mind.
Hitman Mick is approached by small time mobster George to do a rush job that night on a woman (Fiona) who has stolen a lot of money from various people. However when Mick arrives he finds that she is not only expecting him but is ready to be killed. Mick is enticed by her and starts to get to know her falling under her mysterious spell and eventually finding what he feels is love in his otherwise dead world. However the time must come.This film is very stylish. It begins with a `hit' that is slow and quiet while `love is all around' plays in the background. This style stays with the whole film as it manages to feel both stagy but also be a cool and slick piece of film. The problem is that this style isn't fully carried into the plot or the characters. While the story of a hitman falling for his victim or finding love isn't new I still want something more than the usual.This is too straight forward and expects us to make huge leaps way too quickly in the film. The slick direction almost helps to conceal this but not quite. The lack of character development in the two lead roles also weakens the film. LaPaglia can stare into the distance and act detached all he wants but his sudden fall into love is not easy to swallow at any point. He almost manages to hide this by `looking deep and lost' but not totally. Rogers swings from bubbly to scared to ready every 5 minutes and we never get to go beneath the surface with her. Boyle is OK if only because his performance brings the strengths out in his role without exposing the weaknesses.Overall a stylish directing job and several really nice touches do not a great film make. The weakness in plot and character are evident from 15 minutes in ans stay there for the rest of the film. It's a shame a better developed script and characters would have made this a much better film. Good but flawed.
Lapaglia is tremendous as the icy hitman who not only thaws from the heat of passion, but burns to a cinder in the process! Mimi Rogers is good as the object of his obsession. This modern noir film should not be missed. Lapaglia stunning performance runs the gambit of emotion and melts the screen!Don't miss it!