You know the drill; girl catches boy cheating, girl breaks up with boy, girl finds new, mysterious boy who seems like a perfect rebound.
Girl finds out boy is an international hitman who has made a Dexter type turn in life and now kills the people that hire him to kill. All this and more in the Max Landis-penned act-rom-comedy ‘Mr. Right’.
After Martha (Anna Kendrick) catches her boyfriend cheating she melts down into a puddle of oh-my-god-men-are-the-only-thing-that-define-me goo. The only thing that is able to re-solidify her is the seemingly normal Nameless Male (Sam Rockwell) who – besides being able to catch things like super fast – is being hunted by the FBI and a gang of brother mobsters.
From here begins a whirlwind romance between our two leads with a good dose of hardcore murder sprinkled throughout. If you’ve seen Landis’ 2015 effort ‘American Ultra’ you will have an idea of how the action in ‘Mr. Right’ plays out. Unassuming male character is actually a super solider that can mow down a roomful of assassins with one hand tied behind his back. {youtube}lAvRvxv7t0A{/youtube}
Rockwell has enough ragamuffin charm to offset the illogical notion that Sam Rockwell could be a super-solider-hitman ninja. Kendrick has enough cutesy-baby-duck pep to almost offset the fact that Martha literally has no back-story besides she might have been to collage?
The whole movie has enough slapstick violence and sarcastic humour to make it entertaining enough to get all the way to closing credits. There is, however, one glaring problem that tips ‘Mr. Right’ into the wrong territory. The two romantic leads have a real-life age difference of 17 years.
Thanks to Rockwell constantly looking like he got off a four-day bender and Kendrick’s love of baby talk the age difference is all the more concerning. In the couple’s meet-cute over a stack of falling condom boxes, Rockwell utters the question “Is it creepy?” which you will just not be able to shake from your head as the lovers slowly drift towards pervy-uncle territory.
I’m not saying that either actor is creepy, but put them together and it’s like watching an episode of 'To Catch A Predator' ten years down the track.
Overall, ‘Mr. Right’ is a decent shoot-'em-up style comedy, but when you make a movie called ‘Mr. Right’ maybe make it plausible that the leads would be in each other’s Tinder age range.
2.5 stars out of 5
'Mr. Right' is currently screening nationally.
