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WILD TARGET (2010): Killers, Thieves & Pot Heads

July 14th 2011 10:47

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“I have been a zombie, a vampire and a squid, which not many people can claim,” says the delightful Bill Nighy (Underworld, Pirates of the Caribbean), best remembered as the naughty singer of carols in Love Actually, who stars in this black-cum-romantic comedy as Victor Maynard, an anally retentive middle-aged professional assassin. In his spare time, Victor learns French and glues his piles of money back together – his employers clearly have a wry sense of humour and tend to take 'half now, half later' a little too literally...

One day Victor’s polished professional routines get side-tracked with an unexpected “I love you” – which comes from a parakeet clearly channeling Dame Edna. As Victor has just dispensed with the bird’s owner, he decides to take it home to his mother’s (a fab Eileen Atkins) - a visit that does away with exposition by explaining all of Victor’s eccentricities in half a minute.

Nighy re-unites in this film with his co-star from the award-winning Gideon’s Daughter, Emily Blunt (The Young Victoria), who (slightly incestuously) graduated here from daughter to love interest in the role of Rose, a sassy & compulsive thief that takes ‘free-spirited’ to unprecedented heights, and swindles Rupert Everett out of a coveted Rembrandt. She bites just a little more than she can chew with this one however, and Victor is quickly put on her case. Like the parakeet, Rose strikes a soft spot within him and things spiral in hilarious directions from there.

The final member of this ménage a trois comes in the shape of Harry Potter’s Rupert Grint, clearly wishing to branch out of Hogwarts. He ends up playing the same part of unfortunate sidekick in this plot, becoming a terminally laid back assassin’s apprentice, for which profession he has some natural aptitude – except for the killing part.

Rupert Everett, normally dashing, looks like he’s had some work done, unnecessarily if you ask me (ahhh, those career pressures!) and hence sports a beard, which doesn’t do much for his looks but seems to effectively enhance the madman aspects of his brief role as Ferguson. Interviewing prospective assassins is a treat, with Martin Freeman (who incidentally played Rembrandt himself in Peter Greenaway’s Nightwatching) as Dixon coveting Maynard’s top spot in the profession. Attention to detail is evident so is the English breakfast arrangement of bacon and sausages in a posh hotel. Plus there are plenty of car chases with minis so beloved by the Brits; they are certainly great for manoeuvring if you’re planning a quick getaway.

Amongst all the wackiness, including bonsai uber-trimming and pink cats, this comedy manages to be an engaging character study as well, deconstructing the British stiff upper lip national character in favour of some wild acting out, apt explorations of dysfunctional family dynamics, loneliness, arrested development, and the vagaries of love.

Wild Target was directed by Johanthan Lynn, who cites many classic films as his inspirations such as The Maltese Falcon and Psycho, but you'll be able to spot nods to The Getaway, Le Samouraï, The Thomas Crown Affair and perhaps a touch of Pulp Fiction and The Last Supper. It's actually a re-make of a French film which explains its wacky sensibility and continental influences.

Review by Patricia Bieszk

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