A young woman with a terrible track record in love, finally meets a nice guy. Actually, the perfect guy! He’s handsome, polite, respectful and charming. Just one thing: he’s a contract killer.
Starring Anna Kendrick and Sam Rockwell, Mr. Right is an action comedy that is coming a little late to the party in terms of mixing deadly assassins and romantic, comedy relationships. Still, the leads look like they have great chemistry (even if Rockwell is nearly twenty years older than Kendrick). The plot is pretty straight forward, though the twist is that Mr. Right (Rockwell) has had a change of heart concerning his murderous ways. Not that he’s giving it up, he’s just turning the tables and killing the people who hire him. This is somehow meant to make him less of a bad guy because . . . murder is wrong? On his tail is Tim Roth, playing FBI agent Hopper, who confronts Martha (Kendrick) and tells her she fallen for an assassin with a conscience. As it’s a romantic comedy, this doesn’t put her in protective custody or even end the relationship.
The sardonic tone feels very mid-1990s, a bit like an Elmore Leonard adaptation. It’s written by Max Landis (son of directer John Landis), who is best known for penning the minor hit Chronicle and looks to rely a lot on inverted expectations. Rockwell is in fine form playing a character that seems wholly invulnerable but naturally getting out of sync as he falls for the naive but clearly smitten girl. But there are obvious ploys and setups that are dusty, such as she figuring out who he is and momentarily looking like she’ll run away but then leaping into his arms for a passionate kiss. It’s been done, a lot.
Mr. Right opens April 8, 2016
Director:
Paco Cabezas
Writer:
Max Landis
Stars:
Anna Kendrick, Tim Roth, Sam Rockwell |