Thursday, August 11, 2011

Wild Target


It's the time old story of boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, classic misunderstanding and then they all live happily ever after. Except that here the boy is hired to kill the girl after she cons £900,000 off a real-estate tycoon with a fake Rembrandt. So not your standard romcom fare, but it's a nice twist on an old tale.

I'll be honest, the reason I watched this was because of the cast, and it's especially nice to see Bill Nighy in a leading role. And the cast works beautifully together. Nighy's Victor Maynard is understandably emotionally damaged considering not only his profession, but the fact that he is the latest in a line of assassins, and you can see and understand his almost immediate attraction to Emily Blunt's character Rose. Add in Rupert Grint as Tony and Victor can step into his own little nuclear family, giving him the human connection he so obviously is lacking. And as ridiculous as the premise looks on paper, it unfolds so organically that the suspension of disbelief was something that happened in the background of my enjoyment of the story.
 
The other thing about this that I really enjoyed was the "misunderstanding", that moment in almost every other romcom where one of the parties involved finds out that the other is not who they say they are. I hate the "misunderstanding". I always have because it never makes sense considering how much the two characters are supposed to be in love (I'm looking at you Katherine Heigle). But at least here, if Rose is wrong, she will be murdered, so I will let it slide. The ending does get a little formulaic, telegraphing its moves to the audience but overall the resolution works for me.

Martin Freeman's teeth are absolutely terrifying.

This is actually a remake of an older french film Cible Emouvante which I have not had a chance to watch yet as I can't find a copy, but if I ever do, I will revisit.
Rating: A-


1 comment:

  1. His teeth really are too perfect.

    It was really neat watching Rupert Grint as someone other than Ron Weasley. Sure, there was one Ron moment, when he had that same tripped out look that he had when he ate Romilda's chocolates that took me right back to the Griffindor dorms, but other than that, Ron vanished and left me with this warm and fuzzy feeling for Rupert Grint.

    I love the way you formatted this - it looks great. But I do have to question the lack of a picture of Rupert Grint smoking in the tub. I found that particularly memorable. :)

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