WILD TARGET
UK, 2010, 98 minutes, Colour.
Bill Nighy, Emily Blunt, Rupert Grint, Rupert Everett, Eileen Atkins, Martin Freeman, Greg Fisher, Geoff Bell, Rory Kinnear.
Directed by Jonathan Lynn.
There is an increasing number of droll films about these days. These are smiling rather than laughing films which leave the raucous shenanigans of Hangover-like comedy behind and opt for some wit, some satire, some black comedy with touches of the absurd which is just that bit realistic so that we believe in the characters and what they are up to despite our knowing that it is all far-fetched. (To check on Wild Target’s veracity and realism, you would need a review from a full-time hitman, preferably British, who has eluded arrest and lives an elegant ‘good life’ in private, preferably on a country estate.)
Bill Nighy is the hitman here. Emily Blunt is his erratically and moodily wild target. Rupert Grint is an apprentice (but does not realise what for.)
If that cast is not good enough, there is quite a funny and ironic turn from Eileen Atkins as Nighy’s demanding mother (she gave him a Baretta for his 7th birthday – she is that kind of devoted mother with high expectations). Martin Freeman is the most deadpanly calm of deadly assassins, with Geoff Bell as his sadistic but dumb assistant (asking for Rembrandt’s address during at art forgery case) and Rupert Everett is obviously enjoying himself as an art connoisseur who is hoodwinked about the Rembrandt but has more than enough money left over to hire the best hitman to get rid of the swindler.
There’s enough plot to keep one interested and amused.
Bill Nighy is particularly good as the nearing-55, gentlemanly, impeccably dressed and spoken, expert at disposing of people, who is about to get rid of Emily Blunt, a skittish instant kleptomaniac if ever there was one (but not against selling off a fake Rembrandt for a million dollars) but finds he cannot. He finishes up accepting a role as her security agent – and this transforms his life and his ability to defy his mother. And Rupert Grint, on holiday from Hogwarts, gives a nicely judged performance as a young man who happens to be in the wrong spot (or the right spot depending on how you judge job opportunities) when the attempt is made on the Wild Target’s life.
Obviously, it’s a farce. In fact, it is a very British re-working of a French farce, filmed by Pierre Salvadori as Cible Emourvante, with Jean Rochefort in 1993. It is so British in its manners, its buttoned-up behaviour, its well-mannered and bad-mannered thugs, and its continually humorous spoof of British ways, that, even though it is really a very slight film, you enjoy it all the way through (unless you believe that justice must be seen to be done at the end, well police and legal justice anyway. It does not.)
Jonathan Lynn was one of the writers and the director of Yes, Minister. He has spent a lot of time in the US on more broadly comic movies. This is a welcome return home.
1. Remake of a French film was a very British setting, British character and tone?
2. The London settings, the city, streets, hotels, flats? The mansion in the countryside? The musical score?
3. The introduction to Victor Maynard, a Bill Nighy character? Appearance, manner, prim and stiff, 54? In the street, his clothes, going to the block of flats, the victim falling? His practising his French?
4. His visit to his mother, memories of his father, his mother’s determination, the gift of the Baretta at seven, the scrapbook of the exploits? Later being discovered by Rose?
5. Rose, thief, kleptomaniac, arranging the Rembrandt forgery, Jerry and his work, his later being killed by the assassins, the deal with Ferguson, bargaining about the price, Rose substituting the painting, Ferguson and the discovery, his humiliation, paint on his nose, phoning for Rose to be assassinated?
6. Victor, his reputation, unseen, his various attempts to kill Rose, following her through the market, the stealing, the changing room and the wrong death, in the street, people obscuring the view, keeping vigil outside her room, the sexual encounter, in the morning, following her to the car park? His wanting to back out of the contract, his mother upbraiding him, the alternate assassins, the death, Tony and his stealing the car and his presence?
7. The confrontation, Rose and her abrupt manner, paying Victor to be her bodyguard? Mike and his attempt to kill her, Tony and the gun? The three escaping, going to the hotel, the comedy checking in, the room? Victor and his proper manner? The issue of his attraction to Tony, Tony in the bath? Rose and her drinking, going to the wrong room, the irony of Ferguson inside? The boots, Mike discovering them, the pursuit?
8. The escape, the car chase, the crash, Ferguson and Mike in hospital? Checking out Dixon to do the assassination?
9. Life in the mansion, Rose and her silly behaviour, Tony enjoying the new life, becoming the apprentice, all the training? Sleeplessness, Victor massaging Rosa’s feet, her change of attitude, devotion? The celebration of his birthday, everybody loosening up? Rose and Victor’s mothers attack during the night? Rose and her discovery of the scrapbook, attempting to escape?
10. Dixon and his associate, tracking down Victor, abducting Rose, her giving them the information?, The guns, the irony of Victor’s mother and her shooting? Tony seizing the knife?
11. Dixon, tracking down Jerry, the discussion about Rembrandt’s address? The murder?
12. The resolution, everybody happy? Three years later, the family together, the little boy – and the disappearance of the cat and burying it?
13. Audience taste for British black comedy?
