The Matador

Ealasaid/ January 30, 2006/ Movie Reviews and Features

Directed by: Richard Shepard
Starring: Hope Davis, Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear
Rated: R for strong sexual content and language.
Parental Notes: This is not a film for kids. It’s aimed squarely at adults, and if the explicit sexual content and language didn’t keep youngsters away, the adult, sophisticated nature of the film would. This probably isn’t a movie youngsters who love James Bond will enjoy.

Pierce Brosnan has been James Bond since “Goldeneye” in 1995. Sure, he had other roles, but many of them, particularly Andy Osnard in “The Tailor of Panama” and Thomas Crown in “The Thomas Crown Affair,” were in the same vein. Now, ten years later, he’s been unceremoniously booted from the Bond franchise and although he got the news midway through shooting “The Matador,” it’s easy to read his performance as hit man Julian Noble as a thumbing of the nose at the Bond folks.
Julian is a classic contract killer: drinks and sleeps around too much, kills without a second thought, and is suave, good with the ladies, and improbably handsome. It seems like a perfect life, but there’s something about Julian that makes it clear things aren’t all that great. Maybe it’s the sloppy stubble or the hungover, exhausted look. Or maybe it’s the way he reacts when his handler wishes him a happy birthday and he realizes that he has nobody to call for a chat. Just when it’s starting to really hit him that he has no real relationships or plans for the future, he meets Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear) in a hotel bar in Mexico.
Danny and Julian are both in Mexico on business, but aside from that and their mutual desperation, they are almost entirely different. Danny is a good guy fallen on hard times. He still has his wife Bean (Hope Davis), but his son has died, he has failed to land a solid job since being laid off years ago, his business deal in Mexico is on the rocks, and a huge tree fell on his house right before he got on the plane to make the trip. Danny’s afraid that if he doesn’t land the deal, Bean might leave him.
Julian, longing for actual contact, strikes up a conversation, but he has lost the ability to communicate sincerely. He manages to offend Danny enough times that the beleaguered businessman finally walks off. Julian apologizes the next day and persuades Danny to come with him to a bullfight, where their talk turns to killing and Julian explains his business. Danny doesn’t believe him, and Julian makes him pick someone out of the crowd and walks him through a dress rehearsal of killing the man. By the end of the night, the two are friends. When Julian turns up on Danny’s doorstep six months later on the run from his employers and with a scheme to get himself out of trouble if his only friend in the world will help, Danny and Bean take him in. Bean is thrilled to meet the hired killer she’s heard so much about, asking, “did you bring your gun?”
“The Matador” is an odd film. It’s essentially a buddy movie, but without the sentimentality, melodrama, or explosions screenwriters usually add for excitement. We don’t even get to see the most important killing in the film; it happens off-screen. This is a character study of two men and how their relationship changes them both. It has gleefully over-the-top moments, plays with our associations of Brosnan with James Bond, and edges into cartoonish territory, but the central characters ring so true that the film still works.
Brosnan’s Julian is a sympathetic guy, even with all his vices and borderline psychopathy. Brosnan has the self-confident, brash air he brought to earlier roles, but he also brings out Julian’s human side. Brosnan shows us a man who is utterly burned out and driven to genuine despair by living the life we’ve Brosnan’s characters lead on TV and in movies in the past. Kinnear plays off his former roles as well, blending his goofiness and ordinariness and making Danny someone we see ourselves in. Davis holds up her end of the film against these two excellent performances. Her looks and behavior fit Bean perfectly – she’s a normal woman, not Hollywood’s usual version of a “normal” woman.
“The Matador” is not typical popcorn Hollywood fare. It doesn’t condescend to its audience or insist on making every last thing painfully obvious. If it weren’t for its cast and budget, it would be an art movie. This is a smart, fascinating film, and a must-see for anyone who likes character-driven, intelligent filmmaking.