2008 Woodie Awards
The Matador review and analysis
Unabridged version -- Toro, toro, toro
Christopher Wood
Issue date: 3/9/06 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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The Matador: When Noble Meets Mr. Wright
With "The Matador," Pierce Brosnan has traded in his tuxedo and polished one-liners for colorful nightclub shirts and crass sex jokes. As Julian Noble (what a name), he may trot the globe killing bad guys while swooning ladies, but the similarities with his former 007 role end there.
He lusts after pubescent Catholic schoolgirls and seeks out the company of prostitutes in whatever country his work takes him. And his job as international assassin has recently begun to wear on him. The shaken (not stirred) martinis have taken their toll on this jittery lush with his druggy gaze and bloodshot eyes.
With gray hairs poking out of his mustache and spiky hair, this middle-aged hit man has lost his nerve. Panic attacks cloud his vision before he can make the kill. Enter the mild-mannered salesman Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear) to set straight Noble's wayward soul.
We've seen this kind of story before. Hollywood has found past success in the "lovable criminal" subgenre with movies like "True Lies" (1994), "Analyze This" (1999), and "The Whole Nine Yards" (2000), the latter zany comedies each spawning sequels.
In each the shifty crime world invades stable suburbia, and the lawless killer eventually finds middle-class life oddly alluring. Each person in the friendship gets what he or she most needs: The hedonistic, living-on-the-edge criminal reforms after the simple values of moderate America reveal to him his misspent existence.
If the authorities don't catch up with him, his own conscience will. Simultaneously, the accommodating if inept yuppies experience a rush of exhilaration and a taste of danger that briefly frees them from the humdrum of the spiritless business world. "The Matador" knows its story treads familiar ground. We see the film's good-humored self-consciousness in the moment when a broken Julian screams out to Danny, "Look at me! I'm a parody!"
In "The Matador," Noble and Wright swap identities for a short while. After his memorable encounter with Julian in Mexico, Danny appropriates the killer's mustache and asserts himself more in his personal life, especially with his wife Bean (Hope Davis) during their short-lived sexual escapades. When Julian appears unexpectedly on the Wrights' doorstep at Christmastime, the couple gladly lets their "old friend" enter, while Bean prattles on and on about Julian's "gun."
With "The Matador," Pierce Brosnan has traded in his tuxedo and polished one-liners for colorful nightclub shirts and crass sex jokes. As Julian Noble (what a name), he may trot the globe killing bad guys while swooning ladies, but the similarities with his former 007 role end there.
He lusts after pubescent Catholic schoolgirls and seeks out the company of prostitutes in whatever country his work takes him. And his job as international assassin has recently begun to wear on him. The shaken (not stirred) martinis have taken their toll on this jittery lush with his druggy gaze and bloodshot eyes.
With gray hairs poking out of his mustache and spiky hair, this middle-aged hit man has lost his nerve. Panic attacks cloud his vision before he can make the kill. Enter the mild-mannered salesman Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear) to set straight Noble's wayward soul.
We've seen this kind of story before. Hollywood has found past success in the "lovable criminal" subgenre with movies like "True Lies" (1994), "Analyze This" (1999), and "The Whole Nine Yards" (2000), the latter zany comedies each spawning sequels.
In each the shifty crime world invades stable suburbia, and the lawless killer eventually finds middle-class life oddly alluring. Each person in the friendship gets what he or she most needs: The hedonistic, living-on-the-edge criminal reforms after the simple values of moderate America reveal to him his misspent existence.
If the authorities don't catch up with him, his own conscience will. Simultaneously, the accommodating if inept yuppies experience a rush of exhilaration and a taste of danger that briefly frees them from the humdrum of the spiritless business world. "The Matador" knows its story treads familiar ground. We see the film's good-humored self-consciousness in the moment when a broken Julian screams out to Danny, "Look at me! I'm a parody!"
In "The Matador," Noble and Wright swap identities for a short while. After his memorable encounter with Julian in Mexico, Danny appropriates the killer's mustache and asserts himself more in his personal life, especially with his wife Bean (Hope Davis) during their short-lived sexual escapades. When Julian appears unexpectedly on the Wrights' doorstep at Christmastime, the couple gladly lets their "old friend" enter, while Bean prattles on and on about Julian's "gun."