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Accomplices of deception (hit manUnited States/2023). Address: Richard Linklater. Script: Richard Linklater and Glen Powell. Photography: Shane Kelly. Music: Graham Reynolds. Edition: Sandra Adair. Cast: Glen Powell, Adria Arjona, Austin Amelio, Retta, MIke Markoff. Duration: 115 minutes. Distributor:Diamond. Qualification: Suitable for over 13 years old with reserves. Our opinion: very good.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen how a star is born in real time in Hollywood cinema. The new great protagonist of that brilliant construction is called Glen Powell and a large part of this consecrating journey has to do with Accomplices to deceptiona far-fetched local translation of an original title that, it must be acknowledged, has a meaning in English that could hardly be translated into Spanish with a few words capable of attracting attention.
The term “hitman” corresponds, literally, to a hitman, a hitman. And when we separate it into two it maintains that meaning, but also figuratively we could speak of a “man who hits the target.” Or, going further, someone who gets it right, who hits it. We also use “Hit” when we hit someone or when we receive a hit.
We will find at some point in Accomplices to deception examples of each of these meanings. There are very precise references around the police aspect of the matter. And also the others. The result, far from coming together in some hybrid conclusion, is very enjoyable, fun and has a classic destiny, especially because of the sources from which it draws so that we can have such a good time. First, the screwball comedy; then, a police plot that was so often associated with that light and often crazy look at the world to achieve virtuous results; finally, the romance between two characters who have perfect chemistry on screen.
One of them begins to take shape like a star with all the letters. Glen Powell has already been hinting that he aspires to that place since we saw him as Tom Cruise’s antagonist in Top Gun: Maverick. Smart, charming, innate heartthrob, Powell enters the scene with just the right amount of mental quickness and arrogance that is expected of anyone who is willing to conquer a girl (and from there) to the world from a screen. And he also knows how to handle other fundamental requirements: a foolproof power of seduction (with the smile as his main weapon) and his handling of the body, a quality in which some clumsiness or distraction should not be missing.
Texan like Richard Linklater, Powell was the one who approached him with the talented director of the trilogy of Before nightfall the original material that was transformed into this film. It is the true story of Gary Johnson (name preserved in the film), an undercover agent in the service of the Houston police who posed countless times as a hitman to catch red-handed people willing (and determined) to kill his peers.
The Gary Johnson created by Powell and Linklater lives in New Orleans, he is a competent psychology professor, a lover of cats and bird watching, who one day finds the possibility of putting into practice everything he preaches in his classes: Get out of the comfort zone and find new stimuli to escape routine. At first the police summon him because of his talent for handling microphones and hidden cameras in surveillance tasks. And when the opportunity for more direct work with the law suddenly arises, Johnson will prove (as he did in real life) that he is a master at disguises and characterizations.
With pure grace and a playful spirit that we immediately associate with our best memories associated with the great Hollywood comedy, Powell begins to display a frankly exhilarating talent, multiplying that game of simulations and false identities that Linklater, with the same spirit, gave us. showed in the masterful School of Rock.
Thus, the unexpected agent discovers, one after another, the potential murderers. Until everything gets complicated (while getting better and better before our eyes) when a client, personified by the charming Adria Arjona, asks him to execute her husband, an abuser through and through. At that moment our hero truly falls in love, but he cannot reveal his true parentage. How will he then manage to express true feelings and maintain the pretense?
In this game of roles, simulations, appearances and double identities, Linklater activates all the mechanisms and possibilities of comedy (like those of before, but with more sexual charge) with delicious results. Nothing is what it seems in the best sense of the expression. The suspense that opens up on the side of the police plot (after all, here too a potential murderer is being sought) coexists with an increasingly passionate romantic intrigue. And in the middle, the figure of Powell stands out, a genuine heir in the 21st century to the charm, good looks and mental speed of Cary Grant. Accomplices to deception a great star was born.
