The Matador
My favorite parts of The Matador were the intertitles. That’s not to say that it wasn’t a totally decent movie, but I just really liked the titles! They were just big block letters in bright colors over dim cityscapes that said MANILA or MEXICO CITY and I thought they were really hot. I like the poster too. So slick!
Basically this movie is about how Pierce Brosnan is awesome and hot. He’s a hitman who meets the down on his luck Greg Kinnear at a hotel bar in Mexico City where the pair become unlikely friends. Brosnan’s guarded and sociopathic Julian decides to reveal himself and his secrets to the depressed, broke-with-a-dead-kid Danny (Kinnear) and they bond at a bullfight. Months or a year later, they meet again when Julian shows up at Danny’s home in Colorado asking for help with one last hit.
The movie is a little uneven – I felt like it took a while to get started and I wished I had seen more of Julian as a successful, calculating, sexcrazed hitman and less of him ‘losing his touch.’ Stylisitically, I really liked it. I thought PB was sort of brilliant and incredibly sexy. Kinnear reminded me way too much of my old roommate but was generally good at being kind of sniveling and desperate and sad (much like his character in Feast of Love – please take my word on this and don’t see Feast of Love to compare for yourself).
And I always love Hope Davis, who played the underdeveloped wife of Danny, though I’m starting to wonder why. She never seems really brilliant and amazing, but she is still somehow charming and compelling. Maybe it’s just because I wish I were friends with her and she seems to make really good choices creatively, if not career-wise (Did you watch Six Degrees? Yeah, I didn’t think so.)