A hit man who's gotta danceRobert Duvall as a hit man who's gotta dance
Wearing a tight ponytail and a tighter squint, John J. (Robert Duvall) is a quiet Brooklynite whose day job involves the whacking of strangers. He's a hit man, a killer for hire.At night, when he's not playing nicey-nice to his girlfriend's little daughter, he's making graceful moves across the dance floor. He's a ballroom aficionado, a killer with happy feet.
Wearing a tight ponytail and a tighter squint, John J. (Robert Duvall) is a quiet Brooklynite whose day job involves the whacking of strangers. He's a hit man, a killer for hire.
At night, when he's not playing nicey-nice to his girlfriend's little daughter, he's making graceful moves across the dance floor. He's a ballroom aficionado, a killer with happy feet.
Assassination Tango, which was written, produced and directed by and stars Duvall, is a wonderfully crafted, smartly acted study of a complex old coot. Methodical to the point of eccentricity, John J. goes about his business with efficient cool. He's long ago reconciled (and compartmentalized) his line of work with his view of the world: There's no pretending that the taking of a life is somehow morally justified, nor does he see it as any great sin in the grand scheme. It is what it is, he is what he is, and that's that.
Hired to knock off an Argentine general, John J. heads for Buenos Aires. His contact, Miguel (Ruben Blades), introduces him to a couple whose son was murdered by the military chief. John J. doesn't care - "There's two sides to every story," he says. He just wants to get on with it and get back home to his lady (Kathy Baker). But the general's return to Buenos Aires has been delayed, and John J. is forced to hang around, killing time, waiting for his prey.
To pass the days and nights, he goes to a club, where couples strut and stride, kick and bend, in the steamy throes of the tango. John J. loves it.
Of course, there's a beautiful young Argentine (Luciana Pedraza, Duvall's partner in real life) to teach John J. the steps, and a clique of colorful tango sophisticates to eat, drink and be merry with. The man from Brooklyn dives headlong into the exotic Europeanness of Buenos Aires' nightlife. And headlong into a mess, when his target, the general, finally shows up - and the reality of why he is here hits him.
Duvall, with a tricky glint in his eye and a spring to his step, inhabits John J. completely, and the chemistry between the actor and the birdlike Pedraza (who has not acted before) is much in evidence.
Assassination Tango belongs to an odd little movie oeuvre - Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog and Luc Besson's The Professional are two others - where men and women (Besson's La Femme Nikita) who are paid to kill are humanized by showing their own lives and loves.
It's fiction, of course, but the message is simple: Bad guys are people too. And some of them can even dance.
Contact movie critic Steven Rea
at 215-854-5629 or srea@phillynews.com.
Assassination Tango
*** (out of four stars)
Produced by Robert Duvall and Rob Carliner, written and directed by Duvall, photography by Felix Monti, music by Luis Bacalov, distributed by United Artists.
Running time: 1 hour, 54 mins.
John J.. . . Robert Duvall
Manuela. . . Luciana Pedraza
Maggie. . . Kathy Baker
Miguel. . . Ruben Blades
Parent's guide: R (violence, sex, profanity)
Playing at: Ritz Five and Ritz Sixteen/NJ