Wild Target is based on Pierre Salvadori’s 1993 film Cible Emouvante, detailing the surprising friendships that can emerge when you’re all in the same boat together, being hunted by professional killers.
2009’s Wild Target sets the story in London, with a line-up of some of the best acting talent Britain has to offer. It is something of a Love Actually reunion tour.
Bill Nighy, also famous for his role as a pirate with an octopus for a face, gives us the wonderfully quirky character of professional hitman – but still something of a mummy’s boy – Victor Maynard.
Martin Freeman takes a departure from his typically nice Briton image to play Victor’s competitor in the killing industry, Hector Dixon. Evil is given new meaning with Freeman’s deadly but oh-so-sparkling-white smile.
Harry Potter actor Rupert Grint, as the young Tony who saves Victor’s life, is one of the film’s richest characters with the best lines. “I’m going to give it to him [Victor],” he says, having decided which of the two assassins he will hand the gun to. “He’s got a tie on.”
Grint and Nighy have some wonderful moments together, with Victor viewing flame-haired Tony as his “apprentice” in the killer career of killing. If Sir Alan Sugar was a hitman instead of a businessman, this could be his film.
Arriving to break up the boy’s club and provide Victor with his much-needed love interest is Emily Blunt as the foxy thief Rose, whose latest con leaves her with £900,000 and a succession of assassins hot on her tail.
Eileen Atkins makes an appearance as Victor’s mother, Louisa, who is determined that Victor should continue the family business. Like many mothers, she often has to step in and save her son from making a big career mistake or, in this case, getting killed.
Perhaps if Wild Target had a lesser cast, the film would fall down on its unbelievability. For instance, it is something of a mystery as to how Victor “the ultimate killing machine” Maynard lasted five minutes as an assassin, considering the way he stalks victims in public areas with his hand conspicuously stuck inside his jacket.
On a similar subject, is it standard assassin practice to fire three shots for every victim? Those bullets don’t come cheap.
Of course, the answer to these questions is that Wild Target is a comedy, but that’s no reason for it to abandon logic. However, the farcical elements are more than made up for by the wittiness of Lucinda Coxon’s script.
Jonathon Lynn’s direction is fairly unimaginative at the beginning but towards the end there are some inspired camera angles that provide genuine moments of suspense and surprise. To detail the scenes would be to spoil the surprise.
Surprises there certainly are and the target is definitely wild. Whatever the critics said when it hit the big screen, Wild Target is worth watching and provides many laugh-out-loud moments, even if it’s just amusement at seeing so many shots of a naked Ron Weasley.
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