'Matador' a perfect buddy movie

matador"The Matador," starring Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear, is one of those movies that is thoroughly enjoyable to watch but just doesn't stick with you. I guess I want a movie to change the way I think, and haunt my thoughts for a few days. Nonetheless, "The Matador" has a lot of good things going for it.

Julian Noble (Brosnan) is a despicable guy who has made a career out of being a hired assassin. His life of boozing and cavorting with prostitutes, not to mention killing strangers, has finally caught up with him.

As the film begins, it's his birthday and he's feeling sorry for himself. I mean, who should have to shoot someone from a rooftop in Mexico City on his birthday? He meets up with Joe-Americansmall-businessman Danny Wright, (Greg Kinnear) in the hotel lobby bar and befriends him. Their relationship is at the heart of the rest of the film.

Brosnan deserved the Golden Globe he was nominated for, if only because he makes one of humanity's most deplorable creatures, a hit man, vulnerable and even lovable. But Kinnear is the one that really makes us laugh.

He's so believable as a guy who's been pulled into this unlikely friendship. Have you ever been in a foreign country and thought, "How did I get into this situation? But isn't it thrilling and cosmopolitan of me?"

This is one reason why Danny stays friends with Julian and helps him with the most important job of his life. Even Danny's wife back in Denver, played with humor and tenderness by "American Splendor's" Hope Davis, can't help but be charmed by this sad and dangerous character.

What's so great about this movie is the way director/writer Richard Shepard never loses the audience's trust by taking things too far.

The relationships feel real and stay real. And what a pleasure it is to see two men form a friendship, actually saying "I like you" and getting peeved when one or the other feels slighted. And they seem no less guy-like when they do. Danny's warm relationship with his wife, even after 14 years of marriage, is also something to envy.

The style of the movie is fresh and energetic. And Julian's globetrotting takes us to some cool locations. There are some strange music choices in the film but they're kind of amusing. All in all, it's a quirky, funny film with heart and enough plot twists to delight from beginning to end.

* LISA DUPUY of La Crescenta has traveled abroad and loves films set in foreign countries.

20060121hm1x8okf(LA)Lisa Dupuy