This movie is an odd bird. For those of you who like to see Pierce Brosnan in his fancy suits, you may not like him here. He's more like Leisure Suit Larry than James Bond. But I think that this role actually fits him better.
Julian Noble is a Fatality Facilitator (his words). In other words, he is a hit man who takes care of situations for people who needs things done. Nothing so fancy as a spy or a mafia Wiseguy. His clients are from the corporate world, or so he says, and they come to him as they have for 22 years. The only problem is that it's his birthday and he's left without a soul in the world to talk to, so he heads to the bar, and there he finds Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear), in Mexico City trying to make the sale of a lifetime.
Of course, the two don't hit it off right away. Julian looks like he's trying to make a pass at Danny - and perhaps he is. Danny tries to share a difficult memory of his son dying and Julian makes a joke about a midget and a well-endowed man. And perhaps the relationship doesn't get much better from there. But it turns out that Danny's sale takes longer than expected, and he and Julian spend some time together, he finds out what Julian really does for a living, and becomes the only friend Julian has in the world.
After returning home to his wife (oddly named Bean), who he tells everything, even Julian's true profession, things return to normal - until Julian shows up six months later, explaining that he's unable to do his work, and he needs Danny to help him finish one last job, which will get him off the hook forever.
As it turns out, the job isn't quite as Julian portrays, but it does seem as if it will get him off the hook, if not quite in the same way, and a tidbit of both Danny and Julian's and Danny and Bean's relationships are saved until the last moments of the movie, making for an interesting ending. Even as I write this, I'm not sure how I feel about it. More than likely, if the movie were on one weekend afternoon, I'd watch it. Maybe not repeatedly, but every now and again.
Rated R for strong sexual content and language. Though he's a contract killer, there really isn't much killing in the movie (there is one car explosion, and some implied killing), a good bit of adult language, and plenty of sex, both implied and actual, so keep the kids away from this one.
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