Movies

The Gunman

Plodding thriller about a paid assassin-turned-aid-worker (Sean Penn, who also co-wrote the script) whose criminal past comes back to haunt him when a price is put on his head as the long-delayed result of his murder of an African cabinet minister. As he evades his would-be killers, he turns to his former boss (Mark Rylance) for answers as well as to the ex-colleague (Javier Bardem) who took advantage of his need to go into hiding after the hit to steal – and marry – his live-in girlfriend (Jasmine Trinca). Director Pierre Morel’s often-gory adaptation of Jean-Patrick Manchette’s novel The Prone Gunman implicitly justifies the adulterous resumption of the main romantic pairing. It also takes a fashionably anti-capitalist stance by suggesting that all the problems of the developing world result from the machinations of multinational corporations.

Watch out for: Strong, frequently bloody violence, a distorted view of marital fidelity, a semi-graphic scene of adultery, cohabitation, brief rear nudity in a nonsexual context, adult references, including to contraception, a couple of uses of profanity, pervasive rough and occasional crude language.

Rated: L, limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling; MPAA: R, restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

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