You know, the more often I see Pierce Brosnan in roles where he plays a scruffy, disheveled sort, the harder it is for me to picture him as James Bond. That's really only relevant because I'm trying to use it as an intro to this review of The Matador, where Brosnan plays Julian, a "facilatator of fatalities", as he describes it to Danny (Greg Kinnear), while they observe a bullfight. They meet in Mexico, each of them on business. Danny and his partner are making a pitch to a company, and Julian is there to kill someone. Oh, and it's his birthday, which leaves him feeling rather lonely. After a rather awkward failure at establishing friendship with Danny, Julian tries again, and they manage to hit it off. However, the stay in Mexico ends with the two apparently back on the outs, after Danny would not help Julian complete another job (he asked Danny to do was trip). But, surprise, Julian shows up at Danny's home at Christmastime, for a couple of different reasons.
It's a fast movie, and for one where one of the two main characters is an assassin, the violence is fairly low key. There are no shootouts, car chases, protracted hand-to-hand combat sequences. There is a lot of consideration of mortatility. Julian obviously kills people, but his birthday has given him cause to examine his life, the legacy he's left, and he's perhaps found it wanting. Danny and his wife Bean have others reasons to consider life and death, ones that Julian is initally unable to comprehend. So a considerable portion of the movie is Julian struggling to hold onto this friend he's made, a task all the mmore difficult because Julian struggles to interact in a way "normal" people are accustomed to. Julian's response to stress is to drink, smoke, or visit a brothel, which doesn't give him much common ground with Danny who loves his wife, and finds being in Mexico a giddy experience, while it's just another day for Julian.
What's most interesting for me is that despite the ups and downs of their friendship, despite the fact they are, as Julian puts it, exact opposites of each other, they can help each other. Each man is confronted with a crisis of conscience, where the other helps them to reaffirm their essential nature, for better or worse.
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One thing I have noticed is that Pierce Brosnan has done a relatively good job of picking roles that distance himself from the James Bond persona, particularly since leaving that role.
Even during the height of his James Bond career he had a habit of picking his characters to provide some distinction from Bond (I'm thinking of Thomas Crowne).
Of course if you want to suffer some Pierce Brosnan related pain, check his performance in Mamma Mia. It's...let's call it bad.
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