The Assignment

Walter Hill's The Assignment was one of the most critically pilloried films of the past year, but I found it to be somewhat diverting. What interested me was Hill's decision to structure the film as if it were a graphic novel. He telegraphs this by freezing ends of scenes and morphing his frame into animated versions of the story. This strategy gives the film the scrappy energy it needs to somewhat transcend its rote genre premise. Hill is a solid action director, but this film illustrates why, despite some commercial success, he has never risen to the front rank of American directors.

What got the goat of most critics is that The Assignment tackles transgender issues in a blunt, comic book style. Michelle Rodriquez portrays a hit man who runs afoul of Sigourney Weaver's Lecter-like doctor when Rodriquez performs a contract killing on Weaver's brother. Weaver gets her revenge on Rodriquez by kidnapping him and changing him into a her. Rodriquez' hitman is a soulless, macho thug who is horrified that he has been turned into a woman and spends the rest of the picture seeking revenge. I think that the misogyny and transphobia Hill has been accused of is that of Rodriquez's character, Frank Kitchen (ahem), and that, thus, such criticism is off the mark. Rodriquez is adept at showing off her butch side and imbues her character's horror with a keening vulnerability that gives the picture some gravitas.

However, Hill throws in references to Shakespeare and Poe that, instead of deepening the picture's themes, come off as vestigial errata. He is not helped by Weaver's monochromatic performance which turns her character into a literally castrating bitch. The cast is otherwise strong and Hill's camera setups are always on target. Phil Norden's editing is exemplary.

When compared to Almodóvar's The Skin I Live In, a film with a similar theme, The Assignment's shortcomings become fairly obvious. Furthermore, The Assignment is a virtual remake of Hill's best film, Johnny Handsome, also a revenge flick in which a post surgical Mickey Rourke hunts down his nemeses. The use of masks in both films point to Hill's chief theme of men struggling with their identities. The dour Hill usually portrays his (always male) protagonists succumbing to their darker and more violent urges. The Assignment is not as worthless as most critics have painted it to be, but Johnny Handsome is a more successful variation of Hill's thematic concerns. (10/11/17)