MR RIGHT
US, 2015, 90 minutes, Colour.
Sam Rockwell, Anna Kendrick, Tim Roth, James Ransone, Anson Mount, Michael Eklund, Katie Nehra. RZA.
Directed by Paco Cabes.
If you thought this title sounded like a romantic comedy, you would be correct – but not entirely. Once you get into the film, you will see that the title has more than a touch of irony concerning the alleged Mr Right.
The writer of this film screenplay, Max Landis, has a weird sense of humour (the amoral characters of American Ultra, Chroncile) when characters have strong moral code but it is not exactly the moral code that the audience would subscribe to.
Sam Rockwell has played enough oddball characters in his career so he has no difficulty in playing Francis, a pleasant enough character to meet at first glance, but in fact, a former CIA assassin, excluded from his job, but he has had something of a conversion! He now disapproves of the morality of those who hire him for hits – and he executes them.
The person who is looking for Mr Right is Martha, played by Anna Kendrick, disappointed in a faithless boyfriend, accidentally meeting Mr Right in a supermarket and their both falling in love.
What is she to do when she finds out what he really does? It doesn’t take long when he excuses himself and goes to talk with another man on a bridge and then shoots him. Martha goes into shock.
Then Mr Right ‘s CIA minder, Hopper, turns up in pursuit. He is played by Tim Roth who at any other time might have taken on the character of Francis himself. They are an odd couple.
While the infatuation and the romance between Francis and Martha continue, there are even more tangles when a group of thugs in New Orleans want to get rid of Francis, two rival brothers, a group of heavily armed gangsters, Martha being abducted, and Francis coming to the rescue though, at one moment, shackled to Hopper.
The dialogue is often flip, the material of spoof, so that the central characters have a cheerfulness about them despite all the odds .Lucky that Francis is so adept with guns and with some martial arts.
There is a happy ever after ending in North Vietnam – with both Francis and Martha contentedly getting the better of would-be assassins.
1. The title? Irony? Romance incorporating an assassin story?
2. The New Orleans setting, apartments and clubs, hotels, criminal backgrounds? The situations for the killings? The musical score?
3. The introduction, the children, their stating their ambitions? Especially Martha – and exuberant?
4. Martha, erratic, her friendship with Sophie, preparing the dinner, her boyfriend and his sexual betrayal and rationalisations? Drinking, going into the cupboard? Sophie getting her out? Going out on the town? The supermarket, the glimpse of Francis? The falling of the condoms? Love at first sight?
5. Francis, his age, look, at the hotel, shooting the woman who hired him? The pursuit, the agents, the wedding reception room, the smashing? Hopper, his squad, listening to the results? Set up for tracking down Francis?
6. Francis and Martha together, falling in love, she with her ditzy manner, he falling truly in love? Going out, his going to work, the encounter on the bridge, the shooting, her shock? Her being petrified? Francis, his explanation, his moral stances after his being a celebrated hitman? To kill those who hired him because that was wrong? Hopper, his explanations to Martha? Staying to protect her?
7. Francis and Martha, their talk, the explanations? His cheerful attitude – and his always wearing the red nose?
8. The gangsters, the plan to kill Francis? Stephen and the old-fashioned gun, wounding Francis in the hand? The brothers, the associates? The plans and the attack?
9. The guns, the confrontation, Francis and his fighting skills, quick with a gun, gymnastics, martial arts? His hand being wounded? His skill in shooting? Martha and her abduction?
10. The character of Hopper, the background, his searching for Francis? The old CIA agent? The two and their fights?
11. Martha, mouth taped, Von and Johnny, holding her hostage? Her laughing at them, the taunts?
12. Francis, his arrival, the guns, his being quick, the touch of the playful? The other thugs, deaths? Von and the rivalry with Richie, brothers’ issues? Richie’s death? Martha, the confrontation with Von, shooting him, killing John with a statue?
13. Francis and Hopper, handcuffs, Francis shooting and being free? Steve killing Hopper? The bounty and the money? Steve giving Francis and Martha a lift?
14. The couple in North Vietnam, the assassin with the gun, Francis and his note on the tray:
15. Tongue-in-cheek, ironic, satiric – but the genuine romance?
