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Arts & Culture

It's 'Mr. Right' But Ms. Wrong

Anna Kendrick and Sam Rockwell star as a woman and hit man who meet cute in the new film "Mr. Right."
Focus World
Anna Kendrick and Sam Rockwell star as a woman and hit man who meet cute in the new film "Mr. Right."

Hit-man romantic comedy misses mark

Companion viewing

"Prizzi's Honor" (1985)

"Grosse Pointe Blank" (1997)

"Seven Psychopaths" (2009)

Poster for "Mr. Right."
Focus World
Poster for "Mr. Right."

In “Mr. Right," which opened Friday at Arclight Cinemas in La Jolla, Sam Rockwell plays a hit man who develops a conscience and starts to kill the people who hire him. What could possibly go wrong … go wrong … go wrong?

I love Sam Rockwell. He can make any film better.

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So when I heard he was actually the star and title character of “Mr. Right,” I was filled with high hopes. Then I saw the poster.

Rockwell sports a clown nose — I can live with that. But he’s paired with Anna Kendrick trying desperately to look casually cute in cat ears and an Epic Combo #23 tee of an astronaut riding a unicorn. That is not so easy to take. And finally the tag line: “They make a killer couple.”

Red flag. This is going to be a romantic comedy? I have to confess up front that romantic comedy (after the 1950s) is my least favorite film genre. I always approach anything with the slightest hint of romantic comedy with a little trepidation. But this one has Sam Rockwell and he deserves to be a romantic lead, so let’s give it a try.

The story involves Francis (Rockwell) and Martha (Kendrick). As I mentioned, Francis is a hit man who recently had a change of heart. He’s still killing people, but now he kills the people who commit the crime of hiring him to kill someone. Martha has just suffered a painful breakup (her ex cheated on her right in front of her eyes) and is going through a crisis of confidence. Then boom! They bump into each other in a convenience store as packs of condoms rain down on them in slow motion.

Yep. Classic Hollywood meet-cute situation.

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They have a date. He has to go kill someone in the parking lot before appetizers, but when he mentions it she thinks it’s a joke. Eventually, she learns the truth, and guess what? She’s OK with it. He really is her Prince Charming, her Mr. Right, come to rescue her from dreaded singlehood and to give her a new sense of self-confidence … as well as killer knife-throwing skills.

“Mr. Right” is 50 percent enjoyable. Basically the stuff with Rockwell being what’s good, whereas the part with Kendrick (an actress I usually like) being mostly nails on a chalkboard. They have occasional good moments together, like the knife-throwing scene where the cute is genuine and not forced, and the super slo-mo is genuinely funny.

But too often the scenes with Kendrick feel so calculated to be adorable that I wanted to vomit. It’s not entirely the actress’ fault. Director Paco Cabezas and writer Max Landis must shoulder much of the responsibility. They are either directing her to be annoyingly over the top, or they are neglecting to rein her in. On the other hand, Cabezas handles the action well, and Rockwell has some wonderful sequences where he mixes dance and fight choreography with effortless style. But those scenes feel like they are from another movie.

Neither Cabezas nor Landis has any experience with romantic comedy features prior to this. Cabezas directed such “gems” (insert ironic voice here) as “Rage,” starring Nicolas Cage, and “Neon Flesh.” Landis wrote “Chronicle” (also half a good movie), “Victor Frankenstein” (all bad), and “American Ultra.” Romantic comedy does not come naturally to either of them, and they seem to resort to clichés regarding their romantic female lead here. They make Kendrick’s Martha cry a lot and get drunk about breaking up with a lame-ass heel. They also have her scrunch up her nose as cute punctuation for scenes and seem to think it’s a positive female role modeling to have her say she’s a “T-rex” and invincible.

“Mr. Right” (rated R for violence and language throughout) looks slick and the action is all nicely handled. There’s even a solid Tim Roth supporting performance to try to win us over. But it will all boil down to how much tolerance you have for cuteness and cloying romantic comedy clichés that will determine whether you can enjoy the film. For me, there was too much cute and not enough of Rockwell.