Pierce is fun in MATADOR

Saw MATADOR last night w Jim, who was in town overnight for work. For some reason after a 4-somethin show, the Boston Common theater didn't have another showtime until 9.55pm. I guess they must've had some special screening or event in between. Eh, I don't mind the late show, so long as I can T myself home in time, and the theater's just down the road from the red line at Park Street. No biggie.

We met up at about 7.30 or so, grabbed some dinner at Rock Bottom around the corner, didn't feel like lingering there until the movie, so we hit the theater on the early side. On the way out, I pointed out the root beer barrels. Next time I'll hafta remember to grab a few for Glen. Altho I wonder how well he'll take to root beer when it's not presented to him by a fetching lass, heh.

At the theater, I used two of the passes I'd gotten from Rachel a few weeks back, so our evening tickets only cost $6 - I'm already enjoying the movie, heh. Like I said, we were early for our 9.55 show, but whatever was on previously in our room, theater 1, was already done, so they let us in. Before we stepped all the way into the auditorium, Jim asked me how many people I thought would be watching the movie tonight. Ever the sucker-optimist, I said 20. Jim went with 6. We walked ourselves all the way in to find the room completely empty, heh.


We took center seats in the first elevated row and talked thru the Screenvision countdown of commercials and "Did you know...?s" This Coca-Cola/Screenvision show featured some animated shorts from students at CalArts and such. I wondered how much the students got paid for rights to play their work, or if they got paid at all. Oh, the ScreenVJ gal mentioned undergroundfilm.org as the place to look for more shorts, so maybe they're all in cahootz in screwing over young indie filmmakers. Or not, I dunno. I'll have to have a looksee over there...

...eventually (eh).

Well, a giggly pair of drunken fratboy types took seats way up top. Another couple of people came in and sat a few rows behind us, and sometime during the real and true trailers (not ads), a person materialized in the very front row, center seat. So, 7 people total. Jim's answer of 6 was closest without going over.

He's good like that.

I really enjoyed MATADOR. Pierce Brosnan does an amazing job playing Julian Noble, a socially challenged crass horndog of a professional hitman. He'd tell you he'd rather not be called that, tho - "hitman." He prefers something that reflects his professionalism and reputation, something along the lines of... mortality consultant. Kinnear is very Kinnear (which is good for this) as the straight/everyman slice of American cheese who strikes up some late night Mexico City hotel bar convo with the visiting stranger. It takes a little while for Julian to let down his professional/paranoid guard, but he finds he can't help but like Greg's (I can't remember his character's name) total normalness. It's something he's finding more and more appealing as life, and work, go on.

The two men play tourist buddies in Mexico City for a day and at Julian's insistence, go to a bullfight together. It's there that Pierce, who's been dancing around the subject of his profession, finally gives it up. Greg is skeptical, and to convince him, Pierce takes some extreme measures to demonstrate how he executes one of his jobs, in broad daylight. Greg's shaken, but also exhilarated. But at the end of the day, they part ways, each moving on to their next bit of business, each man certain they'll never see the other again.

Flash forward six months. Julian shows up at Greg's suburbian door. He explains that he's losing it, on the verge of a total nervous breakdown, burnt out, and because of the flagging quality of his recent work, he may be in danger of being terminated, so to speak. He's come to ask Greg for a favor that may save his life. And the wacky hijinks continue.

Julian has a wonderful penchant for the most colorful turns of phrases... In the Julian Noble useful phrasebook, it's not, "I'm so frickin tired," but, "I feel like a Bangkok hooker on Sunday morning after the navy's shipped out!" It's great how his character is so frickin unpleasant, driven by his bloody job, with his only pleasures being drinking and screwing. You see it in his face and attitude when he talks about people, and even sometimes when he's listening to Greg, just how insipid he thinks everyone's average life is, but in his strange and real friendship w Greg, and the breakdown crisis that follows, he reveals a genuine wish, desire, and appreciation of good, small, important things that we all give a damn about.

Bleah. That's not all that eloquent, and a bit Hallmark cliche, which perhaps the turns of MATADOR's story may be, but I certainly did enjoy those turns as made by Pierce and Greg.

I'd heard Pierce was up for a Golden Globe for this (but didn't win, right?) and there's some Oscar buzz (which is kinda kooky, considering the role, but he IS damn good in it), but I dunno... Hope Davis plays Greg's loving fearless true believer sweetheart just right.

It's got a fun soundtrack with a great and surprising drop of Asia that I particularly enjoyed. Also, the flick pushes some rich and luscious visuals, provided by cool framing of scenes in a swank Mexico City hotel and its environs, and some swell supercaptions.

I didn't think the film felt short, but it turned out to be maybe 80-some minutes I think, so I suppose it is pretty short. (Maybe it would've felt short for $10? =) I would've liked to see more assassination action to sort of round out the film and tinker w the pacing a bit, but all in all, this Julian character kinda rocks just doing anything.

Keep on keepin on~