Review of The Matador (2005) by Fiddle J — 10 Aug 2016

The Matador was released in 2005, written and directed by Richard Shepard. The film is a dark comedy and stars Pierce Brosnan as the unstable hitman, Julian Noble. Greg Kinnear plays Danny Wright, a bookish businessman, who is down on his luck. On a business trip to Mexico, the pair cross paths and form a bizarre friendship held together only by how different the two are from one another.

Unfortunately, I never felt that the movie was as funny as it wanted to be. The movie goes to great length to emphasize just how strange and eccentric Julian is, but he never actually did anything that made me believe that. At most he came off as a little quirky. The whole movie felt like that; a lot of talk, but it never delivered any rewarding moments. There are a few scenes that start out with a Coen-esque level of energy, but then fizzle out. The dialogue is not particularly witty, and the two main characters don't even have very interesting dialogue with one another. It all just lacks a certain level of exaggeration to make it work as well as it wants too.

The plot also lacks a lot of energy. There's no real conflict that moves the story along. The film just plods along from one day to the next and feels a little too slow. This slows down the comedic elements and the pace of the movie, and just makes the movie feel too loose and unrefined.

The acting, however, is great in the film. The small cast size makes these top-notch actors shine. Greg Kinnear does a good job of being this timid businessman, but Pierce Brosnan is absolutely front and center in his role. Every scene Pierce Brosnan is in you can tell he is giving it his all, and he is by far the most interesting thing in this film.

This was not a bad film, but it was certainly not as good as it could have been or as good as it wanted to be. The cast does a hard job of trying to bring a lot of life to characters that are otherwise disappointingly unoriginal, and they have some success. But, for a majority of the film I was left wishing that I was having more fun and that I was laughing more. The whole thing just felt too flat.