What is the truth and who decides that it is?
The Hit Man is an action/romance/comedy based off of a true story, kind of. It’s actually based off of a longform article in Texas Monthly and adapted by writer Skip Hollandsworth. The story follows a college professor and police advisor named Gary Johnson (Glen Powell (Anyone but You)). While teaching philosophy, Johnson also helps the New Orleans Police with undercover operations. He eventually gets called to duty interrogating a person of interest who is trying to hire an actual hitman.
It turns out, Gary really has a knack for the skills and a passion for undercover work. He researches the targets and takes on various personas most likely to get them to speak. (This results in some of the movie’s best visual gags and marketing materials.) When Gary meets with a woman who wants him to kill her husband, things take a turn. Gary talks Madison (Adria Arjona (Andor)) out of hiring him. The two wind up making a connection.
Gary and Madison wind up falling for one another while keeping their lives mostly private. A series of chance events leads to each of them getting identified. Madison’s vengeful ex, Ray (Evan Holtzman) and Gary’s work competition, Jasper (Austin Amelio) both run into the couple. This leads to suspicion that they may both be up to something.
The heat is on when Ray winds up dead, and the police decide to question Madison and her unidentified mystery boyfriend. This ramps up the investigation, the stakes, and the chance that Gary and Madison will both wind up behind bars.
The Hit Man benefits from Powell’s willingness to lean hard into his comedy chops. The chemistry that he has with Arjona is excellent. Arjona leverages tricky dialogue and plenty of facial expressions to throw off the cops and the audience throughout. Their real-time perils are offset by Powell’s long collegiate lectures. The result is circular writing that would make Tarantino proud. The characters begin spaced out but all wind up in one another’s immediate vicinity.
The movie features plenty of smaller roles from comedy veterans including Retta, Sanjay Rao, Gralen Bryant Banks, and Molly Bernard. The real-life Gary Johnson acted as a consultant early on in the filming process, but died in early 2022. Director Richard Linklater spoke with him several times over the phone but never in person. Johnson did perform the work depicted in the film, but with the Houston police, not New Orleans.
Check out The Hit Man on Netflix now.