Mr Right | Film review - This Charming Hitman: Sam Rockwell woos

(Image credit: Steve Dietl)

They make a killer couple.

Screwball romantic comedies frequently feature strangers brought together by a mutual spark of zaniness, and that’s certainly so for Sam Rockwell’s wacky charmer and Anna Kendrick’s manic goofball in Mr Right.

The perverse twist here is that he’s a hitman, albeit a contract killer who’s just sprung a conscience and now only bumps off the people who hire him. Understandably, she thinks he’s kidding when he says stuff like, ‘Sorry, I had to kill a guy in the parking lot’. But with both Tim Roth’s shifty FBI agent and an underworld gang gunning for her new beau, she comes to realise he hasn’t been joking.

Having a love story play out amid the bullets and mayhem is something of a stretch, but Rockwell and Kendrick’s surprisingly fizzy chemistry makes this offbeat movie work.

Certificate 15. Runtime 93 mins. Director Paco Cabezas

Mr Right debuts on Sky Cinema Premiere on Sunday 2 July. Available on DVD from Altitude Film Distribution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TatqilQ8rI

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A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.