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The demands of the plot are too severe and this tells on
the two main characters. Credibility is the biggest casualty, writes Ervell E. Menezes
Take two men, two very dissimilar types and get them to connect. Where, but of all places, in a hotel bar, where drowning sorrows is often the name of the game. What happens then? Well, that’s what Matador is all about and though this duo with director Richard Shepard manages to keep the viewer engrossed for almost 100 minutes, the end result is sort of a damp squib, flattering only to deceive. Julien (Pierce Brosnan) is a hit man and though he says "my business is my pleasure" he really doesn’t believe it. He is beginning to feel the strain of snuffing out folks for over a decade. Julien is also a loner and wants to pour his heart out to someone. Who else but troubled salesman Danny (Greg Kinnear), who is also having a rough time at his job and with his wife Bean (Hope Davis). Despite initial hiccups, this pair hits it off, shades of Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine in Sleuth or Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin in Midnight Run. It’s buddy flick, pure and simple. But the demands of the plot are too severe and this tells on the two main characters. Credibility is the biggest casualty. The redeeming factor is that they more or less keep the viewer going right through and for that reason it was probably selected for the Sundance Film Festival, which is known for its parallel cinema. A few good lines here and there also help. Pierce Brosnan, sporting a moustache for a change, approaches this new part enthusiastically. But he refrains from making a glutton of the part as he keeps on vacillating, keeping the viewer on tenterhooks quite often and Greg Kinnear (remember him as Jack Nicholson’s troublesome dog-owning neighbour in As Good As It Gets?) keeps growing as the film progresses until he matches Brosnan. As if to make a point, he then grows a moustache. But what’s the Matador connection? Well, the setting is Mexico City where bullfights are part of the daily menu. It is a symbolic backdrop. And as the matador gets ready for his kill, our hit man is fighting the demons in him. Or does he have his own agenda? It’s a daring attempt and director Shepard must be commended for his effort, breaking away from the usual Hollywood potboilers. It is not an easy subject especially with two actors dominating the proceedings. Hope Davis as the enigmatic wife is purely academic though she does raise a laugh or two. So Matador, despite its eventual let-down, is worth seeing instead of mindless pot-boilers like Date Movie.
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