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When Wile E. Coyote wasn’t busy in his eternally fruitless pursuit of the Road Runner, he also appeared in a second string of shorts opposite Bugs Bunny, in which he'd inform Bugs that he was going to catch and eat him and that there was nothing to be done because he was so obviously Bugs’ intellectual superior. Inevitably, the next few minutes would find the Coyote enduring one painful mishap after another caused, in most cases, by the combination of his ego-driven overconfidence and his spectacular incompetence at the very things he professed to be his specialties. If you've ever wondered what it would be like to see one of those cartoons stretched to a feature-length running time, transformed into live-action, and presented within the context of a story with only inadvertent laughs, then “The Virtuoso” is for you.

Our central character, played by Anson Mount , is a hit man who remains nameless throughout but who has a high enough opinion of his skills to actually refer to himself as, yes, a virtuoso. During the first ten minutes, we hear him narrate at great length about the skill and precision that he's putting into his latest job—which, for extra pretentiousness, he delivers in the second person. Having established his self-appointed bona fides as a master of control, precision, and efficiency when it comes to the art of taking a life, he then blows things spectacularly when his intricate plan goes sideways in a manner that not only takes out his target but which causes a Winnebago to explode on a city street, causing the woman unfortunately standing next to it to catch fire and burn to death in front of her child.

Anyway, after an anxious night or two of the soul, Mr. Virtuoso is contacted by his handler ( Anthony Hopkins ) about a new job he cannot refuse. During his earlier ramblings, he informs us that the more important or high-ranking the target, the scantier the advance intelligence regarding who is being targeted. This time around, the only information that he is given is the address of a rural diner and the directive to be there at 5PM. When he arrives at his destination, the diner contains an odd loner ( Eddie Marsan ) sitting in the corner, a couple ( Richard Brake and Diora Baird ) at a table, a deputy ( David Morse ) at the counter and a relentlessly cheerful waitress ( Abbie Cornish ) who is running the place single-handedly and who seems perfectly willing for our hero to kiss her grits right then and there, so to speak.

The idea, it would seem, is to figure out which one of the diner denizens doesn’t belong and then proceed from there. Unfortunately, everyone seems to be fairly superfluous, and so Mr. Virtuoso waits for them all to leave and then begins to track them down in order to get more information as to who they are and whether they are his target or not. Alas, he continues to fail to live up to his name by making one rookie mistake after another, creating an ever-growing pile of bodies while having no idea if any of them is who is supposed to kill, or if they are all collateral damage.

The conceit of “The Virtuoso,” a hitman thriller in which the killer has to figure out the identity of their target, is not an unpromising one. I can imagine any number of filmmakers— Alfred Hitchcock , Brian De Palma , and Larry Cohen immediately spring to mind—who might have done interesting things with it as long as they had a screenplay containing a smartly conceived story and interesting characters, compelling performers, and a pace quick enough to keep viewers from recognizing all the flaws in the narrative logic until long after the end credits rolled.

Needless to say, none of those qualities are on display here. The screenplay by James C. Wolf is one of those contraptions that's more concerned with being clever than smart or coherent to the point where precious little of it makes any sense by the end—it's one of those films where you can pretty much figure out exactly where it's going by about the 30-minute mark but you probably could not properly explain exactly how the screenplay reached that conclusion. Director Nick Stagliano doesn’t help matters much by presenting the material with a poky pace that does not exactly bring the narrative to vivid life.

The film's other problem is that while there are a number of good, strong, and charismatic actors in the cast as the potential targets—Cornish, Morse and Marsan have all done tremendous work in the past—they are only supporting players and can only do so much. Instead, the focus is on the comparatively bland Mount, who proves to be so insubstantial in the role (you never buy him as this coolly brilliant killer for a second) that his very lack of presence ends up undermining the entire film. As for Hopkins, he only turns up for a few minutes in a role that was clearly shot in perhaps a couple of days tops. While he has been in worse films than this during his career, I cannot immediately recall a lazier turn from him than this one.

Too dumb to actually be any good and too dull to at least be entertainingly bad, “The Virtuoso” is a complete waste of time for everyone involved. For anyone who does somehow find themselves in the unenviable position of having to actually sit through it at some point, you can at least be confident that you will pretty much forget everything about it as soon as it is over and quite possibly before that.

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The Virtuoso (2021)

Rated R for violence, sexuality/nudity and language.

105 minutes

Anthony Hopkins as The Mentor

Abbie Cornish as The Waitress

Diora Baird as Johnnie's Girl

Anson Mount as The Virtuoso

Eddie Marsan as The Loner

David Morse as The Deputy

Richard Brake as Handsome Johnnie

Nick Stagliano
James C. Wolfe

Cinematographer

Frank Prinzi
James LeSage
Brooke Blair

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Movie Review: The Virtuoso (2021)

Alan Gerstle
Movie Reviews
--> May 11, 2021

The Virtuoso , an edgy, slow-burn thriller directed by Nick Stagliano, hosts an impressive cast of pedigreed actors recognizable from a breadth of film and television appearances. We’re treated to Sir Anthony Hopkins, who, now acting in his 80s, has remarked that he’s having a lot of fun nowadays, choosing from a bin-load of scripts that come his way, most recently and memorably as the main character in “ The Father ,” where he provides a tour de force, award-winning performance. Here, in The Virtuoso , Sir Anthony plays a nameless professional mentor and handler of sicarios. It’s not clear how he came upon this line of work, but a story he relates to his disciple Anson Mount (“ Non-Stop ”) reveals his participation in atrocities in a Vietnam War-like conflict.

Mount, one of Hopkins’ go-to assassins, is a low key, dispassionate professional: The virtuoso. He is cold and calculating as is required to succeed at such a job. However, tension arises when he is given an assignment that will take him to a sleepy diner hidden along a swath of rural highway that bears a resemblance to those isolated New England places where nothing much happens and the mood appears chronically soporific. But there’s a catch, maybe two. Mount messed up a previous assignment and thus may be in danger of losing his edge. He begins to wonder whether he will be the cat or the mouse in the upcoming engagement that will pit hunter against hunted. He makes the lonely trek to fulfill his assignment, not clear whom he is to kill or why. He only knows his instructions are to sit alone in a booth at the local eatery (eyes facing the front door, of course), and wait for a sign . . .

The Virtuoso has a neo-noir feel to it. There is suspense, a slow-moving plot, and some alienated-looking characters that seem to have been dropped from the sky or maybe created by spontaneous combustion. If you’ve read Hemingway’s iconic short story The Killers or have seen the film based on the story, you’ll be familiar with the atmosphere. Edward Hopper’s depiction of American alienation in his painting Nighthawks is another cultural reference that comes to mind. Unfortunately, in The Virtuoso , the lonely denizens appear with too much shadow and not enough substance, albeit it’s hard to devise an ideal amalgam. The result is that you often get that “so what” feeling while waiting for the purported and predicted showdown.

David Morse (“ Concussion ”) plays the local sheriff in his typically enigmatic style — superficially friendly but with an undercurrent of menace. Eddie Marsden, the British character actor who has performed on both sides of the Atlantic (recently as a boxing manager and brother of Liev Schreiber in “Ray Donovan”), is another dubious character who adds atmosphere and apprehension. To counterpoint these unapproachable types is Abbie Cornish (“ Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri ”), the lone and lonely waitress making the rounds from table to table — carrying her isolation along with her tray. She is a relatively bright light in the gloomy setting, although Mount is reserved when she makes advances towards him because he needs to suspect everyone — including those least likely to be a threat (or could that be most likely)? Besides, you don’t want to get too romantic with the potential mark. Nor do you want to develop amorous feelings if you are the mark.

James Wolf, the co-screenwriter (along with Stagliano), attempts to inject an original element into the neo-noir structure. Although noirish set-ups often exploit the use of the voiceover — usually in the guise of the protagonist providing his reflections and perceptions of the story development — in The Virtuoso , this device is offered in second person singular, however. So, instead of “I watch the gimp play with the cat’s eye marble,” for example, we have, “You watch the gimp play with the cat’s eye marble.” This seems to be an added value effort to make the film memorable, but it comes across as too gimmicky, and operates at odds with the conventional set-up instead of serving as an organic component.

A menacing locale, a dark mood, and complex characters are ample ingredients for a neo-noir excursion. But a well-executed outing in the genre requires the subtle art of putting all the pieces together in interesting and plausible ways, not adding one on top of the other. The plot needs to reveal just enough but not too much. It’s a difficult balancing act. The Virtuoso almost gets it right, and the film does a lot on a low budget, but it remains minor league fare.

Tagged: assassin , hitman , murder , sheriff

Alan Gerstle is a fiction writer and essayist who also teaches film and creative writing. He lives on the East Coast of the United States.

Movie Review: Condor’s Nest (2023) Movie Review: Son of Monarchs (2020) Movie Review: Naked Singularity (2021) Movie Review: Senior Moment (2021) Movie Review: The Father (2020) Movie Review: Fantastic Fungi (2019) Movie Review: Once Upon a River (2019)

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The Virtuoso Reviews

Never fully settles on a tone, leaving it stranded in a no-man's-land in-between "intriguing genre exercise" and "fun genre parody."

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | May 10, 2022

Theres really very little to recommend The Virtuoso, a film that contents itself with being a vague approximation of better films that have come before.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Feb 17, 2022

Like many assassins in many movies before this, The Virtuoso is the Killer Who Finds His Conscience, and we couldn't care less.

Full Review | Aug 24, 2021

The constant narration becomes tiresome, managing to suck the energy and tension out of every scene.

Full Review | Jul 29, 2021

I recommend The Virtuoso to patient viewers who enjoy less action but more depth of character portrayals - even in hit man sagas.

Full Review | May 28, 2021

The Virtuoso can sadly feel unnecessarily dragged out.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 27, 2021

The lead character is supposed to be an expert assassin, who thinks so highly of himself that he calls himself a 'virtuoso,' but he makes so many dumb mistakes, viewers will be left with the impression that this drama is an unintentionally bad comedy.

Full Review | May 26, 2021

The pace of the film is that of a stage play, and as such, my attention started to wane halfway through.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 21, 2021

Nick Stagliano's The Virtuoso works a couple of intriguing variations on the usual setup.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | May 14, 2021

The artless film attracted a stellar cast, but they were distracted by the mediocre material.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | May 13, 2021

Despite the title, 'The Virtuoso' is a sub-journeyman piece of work in all departments.

Full Review | Original Score: D | May 10, 2021

Shoots for film noir but misses.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | May 10, 2021

A waste of time and talent.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | May 7, 2021

Lethargic direction and bland acting drags down what could have been a decent neo-noir.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | May 6, 2021

Michael Caine famously bought a new house with his fee for making Jaws 4. What Anthony Hopkins splashed out on after completing The Virtuoso remains unknown.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | May 5, 2021

You congratulate yourself for correctly guessing the twist when it arrives. You glumly acknowledge this is a minor consolation.

Taking a cue from its characters' wardrobe, this neo-noir is the black turtleneck of thrillers: It's self-important, pretentious, and doesn't hide the flaws it thinks it does.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 5, 2021

This is an odd, although not entirely unpleasant, one.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 5, 2021

What this needed was a virtuoso to work with the filmmakers to make this more than a formulaic B movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | May 4, 2021

The plot is a pretty good one. The problem is in the execution (again with that pesky pun).

Full Review | May 3, 2021

Set The Tape

The Virtuoso – Film Review

After a scene-setting hit on a man performed while the target is in the middle of love-making (leading to the expectation that this was to be an erotic thriller, but more on that later), we move on to another job where out lead must perform a kill at short notice, without the usual time to arrive early at the scene and plan events thoroughly. With a botched kill from a window down to the street killing an innocent bystander, immolating her while she was playing football with her son, our virtuoso returns home and, haunted by his mistake, begins to question if this is the life for him.

READ MORE: Fried Barry – Film Review

After an indeterminate time spent avoiding his mentor’s overtures, he is eventually tracked down at the grave of his father, and told to answer his phone when work is available. This leads to a new job, where details are scant. He is required to go to a small town, and seek his mark at the local diner, without knowing the mark’s identity, and only the words ‘White River’ as a clue. Meeting a local waitress (Abbie Cornish), Mount works to try to identify his mark, while feeling a growing connection to the small-town woman.

Now the first problem with The Virtuoso is its title. Use of these words sets us up to see the very best of his profession operating at his peak. To be clear, our lead is – unironically, it seems – possibly the most incompetent hitman in recent cinema history. With a story establishing that he will have the use of a considerable skillset, which act one takes time to lay out for the viewer, to work through the population of the town, and to narrow down the list of suspects until he finds his man/woman, our virtuoso proceeds to blunder around and get into multiple situations that risk blowing his cover, or killing the wrong person. Little attempt is made to show our lead working through the clues, and this is a sign of lazy writing.

In blundering through his brief, Mount encounters a range of possible targets, including local law enforcement and another shady possible hitman (David Morse and Eddie Marsan – both wasted, in terms both of screen time and use of their characters). In fact, most of the cast are wasted here. Abbie Cornish is too big a name for the role she has been given, leading to the immediate thought that she simply cannot be what she seems, and undermining all tension.

This leads us on to Anthony Hopkins. The Virtuoso is being released as Hopkins is celebrating his second Academy Award, for The Father . The Father saw him giving possibly a generational performance, up there with his own performance in Silence of the Lambs , Nigel Hawthorne’s in The Madness of King George , and Denzel Washington’s in Training Day . Performances of that calibre are few and far between in the acting profession in general, let alone in a given actor’s career.

Here, Hopkins is back to phoning it in. His role evokes perhaps a bloodshot version of his IMF boss in Mission Impossible II , but, put simply, he looks bored. The graveside scene sees endless monologuing from his character, in a section of the film that is directionless, overlong, and played, genuinely, like Hopkins is forgetting his lines continually. This is the frustration of one of the finest actors the UK has ever produced: he can do that – but then, he is capable of doing this . Stick with The Father for an example of what this man can do in his ninth decade.

Worst of all, The Virtuoso doesn’t know what type of film it wants to be. Mount is an engaging lead, with strong screen presence, and he could – and should – be a far bigger star, but he is leading a film that has garbled aims. The voiceover suggests a neo-noir , yet the plot plays out as a mind-bender/mystery. In the same way that we try to uncover the killer in an Agatha Christie work, no doubt the writers figured the audience would enjoy trying to uncover the target, in tandem with our lead.

READ MORE: Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse – Film Review

In truth, the lead is so spectacularly inept (whilst telling us all about his expertise) as to render his ‘investigation’ irritating to watch. Clearly he has skills, but he is clumsy, and the film doens’t seem to know or acknowledge this. Finally, the film begins with nudity, then plays heavily on the chemistry between Mount and Cornish’s characters – complete with ineptly written (to the point of being laugh-out loud funny) flirting. Any thoughts this is leading to a Basic Instinct -style erotic thriller are dashed, as the (slightly) miscast Cornish has no charisma in the role, and the sexual tension is compartmentalised into tiny sections of the film.

If the film has one redeeming feature, it is that all players – with the exception, amazingly, of the most recent Best Actor winner at the Academy Awards – are sincere in delivering the terrible dialogue, and do the very best with what they are given. For all that, The Virtuoso is a poorly-paced mess: one that has sat on the shelf for two years, and now will be released with little-to-no fanfare. Disappointing.

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‘The Virtuoso‘ movie review: Anthony Hopkins elevates stylish hitman thriller

May 3, 2021
★★½ , Movie Reviews

Anson Mount is a mysterious man on a mysterious mission in The Virtuoso , a tired and overly-familiar hitman movie nearly saved by some slick filmmaking and charismatic performances. There’s nothing new here, but this competent production is a fun little ride as long as expectations are low.

Mount is a Man with No Name who calls himself The Virtuoso during lengthy opening narration that details the usual hitman stuff – living off the grid, communication by private mailbox service, etc. – before being thankfully abandoned the further we get into the movie.

Anthony Hopkins has the throwaway role of The Mentor, our killer’s only contact with the outside world. Outside of a couple scenes at the beginning of The Virtuoso, Hopkins has precious little to do here; his scenes, shot at two or three locations, feel as if they were written into the film when somebody discovered they could hire Anthony Hopkins for a weekend.

But Hopkins, who just won an Oscar for The Father , gives this cut-rate B movie the same first-rate treatment. A ten-minute monologue where his character recounts Vietnam War atrocities is one of The Virtuoso ‘s two standout moments.

The other standout moment is the chemistry generated between Mount’s hitman and Abbie Cornish as a small-town waitress. Both stars ooze charisma, and after making googly-eyes at each other for the first two acts, a steamy climactic scene between the pair really pays off.

Mount’s hitman is in dullsville after receiving an assignment from Hopkins’ Mentor that contains an address, a time, and a single phrase: “white rivers.” Who or what this refers to we have no idea, but it seems to be The Virtuoso’s target.

So he asks around: there’s Cornish’s waitress; a loner played by Eddie Marsan ; a local deputy played by David Morse ; and Handsome Johnnie ( Richard Brake ) and his girlfriend ( Diora Baird ).

You can probably guess where The Virtuoso is going. But instead of turning into a Hateful Eight -like chamber thriller set in the diner, Mount’s character books a room for the night at the town’s only inn and tracks down his potential targets one-by-one.

This leads to some generic but well-staged scenes, though the supporting cast, like Hopkins, has disappointingly little to do; Marsan shares only a brief dialogue with The Virtuoso, and Brake utters a couple lines in a quick flashback.

As familiar as these scenes are, however, they’re staged with surprising flair; a lengthy rural home break-in, in particular, is quite wonderfully shot and choreographed, and has a great sense of atmosphere and feel for the location.

The Virtuoso was directed by Nick Stagliano , and marks his first film in a decade. His first-rate handling of the material, bolstered by a strong cast and fine eye for detail, are nearly enough to overcome deficiencies in the script he co-authored with James C. Wolf .

But like the John Wick movies, The Virtuoso leans too heavily into the mythical world of hitmen and hired assassins, and ultimately severs any ties with reality that might allow us to get involved with the story. The Wick movies made up for this with their incredible fight scenes, but The Virtuoso lacks that kind of ambition.

Still, The Virtuoso is a competently-made production worth catching for the performances by Mount and Cornish, who are both so charismatic you wish they had better material to work with. And Hopkins, whose ten-minute monologue here could be spliced into an awards-season drama without blinking an eye.

The Virtuoso

2021 , Abbie Cornish , Anson Mount , Anthony Hopkins , Blaise Corrigan , Chris Perfetti , David Morse , Diora Baird , Eddie Marsan , Estelle Girard Parks , James C. Wolf , Jenna Hellmuth , Nick Stagliano , Richard Brake , Ryan Jonze , Shay Guthrie , The Virtuoso , Trent Iacono

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Film Pulse Score

The virtuoso review.

Release Date: April 30, 2021
Director: Nick Stagliano
Runtime: 110 Minutes
May 4, 2021
Chris Luciantonio
Reviews

A contract killer prepares to execute his target with icy determination and scrupulous precision in terms of the details. His internal monologue thoroughly checks through every conceivable angle and potential outcome as he lines up his sniper rifle from the safety of his vantage point. He is a professional — unfeeling, calculating and pulling off every hit with a proficient disregard for human life and every base covered where things could potentially go wrong. He is a master assassin, an ace killer, a…virtuoso. Are you impressed yet?

The latest film by Nick Stagliano grants us a glimpse into the mind of a hitman for hire (Anson Mount) and effectively saddles us with his dry, over-embellished and nullifying internal monologue for an hour and a half of non-starting thrills. The Virtuoso works extensively to pull you into the thoughts of the frustrating, humdrum character who plods on and on about every decision he makes and every step in his planned assassinations, and shockingly still never convinces the audience he is a real, developed character despite all the effort.

Through the cardboard-esque performance of Mount, who approaches the titular character like an even duller and emotionless incarnation of Agent 47 from the popular Hitman franchise, the film becomes a trudging, inert crime thriller drawn from tired tropes and an unearned sense of cool due to its subject matter. It would be impressive how tedious and uninteresting The Virtuoso makes the job of a hired killer look, if only the crushing monotony of Stagliano’s film was its ultimate point.

We are introduced to our nameless protagonist while he’s finishing a routine job and settling into his simple, repetitive existence of waiting for the next call, his ongoing monologue bombardment providing unnecessarily detailed exposition over the minutiae of his life while we watch it happen. He is contacted by his handler (Anthony Hopkins, who is on autopilot and can be seen out of a sitting position exactly one time in the whole film) who sends him on a job that goes awry, resulting in some non-target civilians dying.

The experience rattles our protagonist’s confidence — or at least we are led to believe it does because he never feels developed enough, and Mount’s acting is certainly not up to snuff to sell the gravity of this unexpected blow to his professional reputation. With the weight of this mistake (allegedly) weighing on his shoulders, he is dispatched on a job located in a remote, snowy township, which takes up the rest of the narrative.

Through a painstaking, step-by-step process, our protagonist works to narrow down his suspects and eliminate his target before they become aware of his plotting. Stagliano’s filmmaking is best described as perfunctory in that he seems to have a handle on where to place a camera and how to set the lights just right to establish a mood, but all his efforts to apply tension never materialize.

Perhaps because the film can never find itself out of its own first gear, preferring the slow, meticulous pace of an ambling, undefined character who considers every single option in his head multiple times before ever thinking to act and thus livening things up with a sense of action or consequences. In execution The Virtuoso is flat, a wooden, by-the-numbers thriller that mistakes its abundant attention to detail and the dry mumblings of its professional assassin hero as profound. Unfortunately the phrase “show don’t tell” never seems to have made its way to Stagliano while writing the pages upon pages of forgettable voice-over for Mount to rotely recite in a monotone voice.

The Virtuoso is a tedious affair that seeks to put you in the mind of a contract killer and never anticipates how unpleasantly boring that experience would be. Guided by a paper thin protagonist who has no character beyond the label of his job, the film never manages to get off the ground and makes that job seem at all compelling even as he mercilessly picks off targets. Coupled with a needless voice-over and glacial sense of pacing, The Virtuoso proves that watching professionals at work isn’t guaranteed to be compelling by default. Sometimes the less we know about their process, the better.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Virtuoso’ on Hulu, a Torpid Hitman Story With Anthony Hopkins as its Rent-A-Supporting-Star

Where to stream:.

The Virtuoso
Anthony Hopkins

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Now on Hulu, The Virtuoso plays as if it’s made entirely to work around a half-dozen scenes featuring Anthony Hopkins. It’s a slow-burn neo-noir paid-hitman drama-thriller in which the principals are identified only as “The Virtuoso” and “The Waitress” and “The Loner” and the like, and the protagonist persistently narrates in second-person as if he’s writing “Assassination for Dummies” — as in, you know this and you’re aware of that, and then you do this, and it all makes you the best at doing a thing that isn’t very nice, etc. — and occasionally, Anthony Hopkins recites his lines. Godspeed if you make it past that conceit.

THE VIRTUOSO : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Look at these people: they’re having sex with the curtains open so any old professional killer can scope them through the window and put bullets in them. And that’s precisely what The Virtuoso (Anson Mount) does, sniping a fella right out from under a reverse cowgirl, without hitting the cowgirl. Now THAT’S precision. And he’s got his escape exquisitely calculated, knowing that it takes an extra 18 seconds for a phone call to wake up an investigator because it’s the wee hours and said investigator is surely asleep, etc. The job is done and he drives back to his off-the-grid little cabin in the woods where a stray sheepdog wanders up to him, and before you know it, The Virtuoso is sharing his sandwich with the pooch, who’s quite clearly his only friend. Please shed a tear for the lonely murderer.

Orchestrating our guy’s gigs is The Mentor (Hopkins), who sits at a desk in his posh Don Corleone office with the light filtering through the blinds behind him and makes phone calls. The Mentor dials up The Virtuoso and gives him a job with a tight window which makes him rush it a little and as it happens, the target crashes his Mercedes into an RV which immediately explodes into flame and burns a woman to death as she’s playing with her son on the sidewalk. This doesn’t make The Virtuoso happy, and we can tell because his steely gaze softens 0.0071 percent. He stops taking The Mentor’s phone calls, but The Mentor tracks him down at The Virtuoso’s dad’s grave so he can deliver a big long speech about how The Mentor and The Virtuoso’s dad were ordered to do really really horrible stuff back in ’Nam before The Mentor delivers an implied threat to The Virtuoso about what might happen if he doesn’t start answering his goddamn phone.

So The Virtuoso goes home and feeds the dog and answers the phone the next time. The Mentor gives him two words, White Rivers, and off our guy goes to intuit and suss out, detective-like, what that means, and then put bullets in people’s bodies until they die. He ends up in a small town by a mountain I think, and the town consists of a slightly grungy motel and a homey diner called Rosie’s Cafe, because in every American small town is a woman named Rosie who owns a diner, that’s just the way it is. There, he has interactions with The Loner (Eddie Marsan), The Deputy (David Morse), Handsome Johnnie (Richard Brake) and especially The Waitress (Abbie Cornish)

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The Virtuoso is a bit like The Mechanic without the action or Grosse Pointe Blank without the comedy or any of several dozen other hitman movies distilled down to their base cliches.

Performance Worth Watching: Hopkins takes his lengthy ’Nam speech and makes it his own, thus rendering a terrible script ever so slightly less terrible. Otherwise, he sits at a desk and talks into the speakerphone and probably makes a million dollars.

Memorable Dialogue: Feel free to cringe with the white hot heat of a thousand burning screenplays while reading this exchange:

The Waitress: That’s gonna be trouble.

The Virtuoso: You got an eye for trouble?

The Waitress: I’m lookin’ at you, ain’t I?

Sex and Skin: The aforementioned reverse-cowgirl scene; topless Cornish as her character inevitably missionaries with The Virtuoso.

Our Take: “The heart beats two-and-a-half billion times during the average lifetime. But there’s only one beat that matters: the next one,” The Virtuoso narrates. “You search for clues on White Rivers,” he says as we watch him quite obviously search for clues on White Rivers. For a man of few words, The Virtuoso never shuts up with the wannabe hard-boiled voiceover. This is a guy who shares his every thought even though we learn nothing about him, which may be the point, or it may be that the screenplay thinks all we need to know about him is that he’s sad about the woman he accidentally burned up. He’s no longer content to live with the collateral damage that goes with the territory of being an ice-cold taker of life. Like many assassins in many movies before this, The Virtuoso is the Killer Who Finds His Conscience, and we couldn’t care less.

Oh, and he also likes a dog. If you’ve ever liked a dog, then you’ve just gotta sympathize with the guy. John Wick liked a dog, you know. Never forget that John Wick liked a dog.

Beyond the film’s dogged (I apologize) pursuit of many wearying narrative tropes of the genre, the problem with The Virtuoso is its consistent ineptness. Logic does not apply to the plot. We sit back and wait — and wait, and wait — for the twist to arrive, the twist that’s long telegraphed in advance and easier to figure out than Encyclopedia Brown for Tots . The story progresses like a slug oozing across a log, trying to stir up some moody intrigue, but instead boring us into a nap. Director and co-writer Nick Stagliano inspires stiff performances from his cast; in the lead, Mount gives a wooden performance that’s like Timothy Olyphant Lite, or Ben Affleck half asleep, smokin’ a cig and unwittingly spilling his Dunkin coffee. You sit down on the couch. You pick up the remote. You turn the TV on. You watch just about any other movie than this one.

Our Call: I’ve got an eye for trouble, and I’m lookin’ at this movie. SKIP IT.

Will you stream or skip the slow-burn hitman drama-thriller #TheVirtuoso on @hulu ? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) August 25, 2021

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba .

Watch The Virtuoso on Hulu

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Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

Movie Review – The Virtuoso (2021)

April 28, 2021 by Robert Kojder

The Virtuoso , 2021.

Directed by Nick Stagliano. Starring Anson Mount, Abbie Cornish, Anthony Hopkins, Eddie Marsan, Richard Brake, Diora Baird, Chris Perfetti, and David Morse.

A lonesome stranger, secure, nerves of steel, must track down and kill a rogue Hitman to satisfy an outstanding debt. But the only information he’s been given is a time and location where to find his quarry – 5 pm at a rustic diner in the dying town. No name, no description, nothing. When the assassin arrives there are several possible targets, including the county sheriff. Endangering his life, the assassin embarks on a manhunt to find the Hitman and accomplish his mission. But the danger escalates when the erotic encounters with a local woman threaten to derail his task.

The Virtuoso opens with the eponymous assassin (played by Anson Mount with the requisite emptiness and cold demeanor for being a killer for hire) narrating what at first seems like an unnecessary amount of detail for his line of work. Some of his assassination techniques rely on such specificity that the film already starts to strain believability, but the brooding performance and awakening of seemingly long-dead morals are enough to intrigue.

Following a smooth job replicating what looks like an expert playing one of the Hitman video games on Master Assassin difficulty, the film itself sort of turns into what it looks like when I play one of those games; the job gets done in a messy fashion. In this particular mission (there’s also a monologue about how our protagonist only accepts contracts for government or corporate officials), a sniper rifle bullet penetrating a car tire causes his target to spin out and crash into a larger vehicle setting off an explosion (physics be damned), where a nearby mother and child become collateral damage inadvertently catching fire and burning to death.

This is where The Virtuoso is noticeably rattled to the point where he can’t even bring himself to talk to his boss, vaguely known as The Mentor (played by Sir Anthony Hopkins, a professional as always trying his best with the material even if one big speech comes across as something between rambling and interesting, which is also a succinct summary of this film in general). Nevertheless, The Mentor tells a horrifying war story (inside that story we also learn his connection to The Virtuoso) that basically amounts to “shit happens, clear your mind and get ready for the next target”.

The Virtuoso is only given the time and the place for his next mission, a small town where he must enter a rundown bar and psychologically profile the patrons to figure out which one is the evidently high-ranking target. Now, at what could be a crossroads of whether he wants to continue this line of work or not, there’s definitely some pleasantness in getting a quick whodunnit. What I was not prepared for (and what sinks the film for a multitude of reasons) is that this mission would take up the remaining 90 or so minutes.

Inside the local joint for the night are characters credited as The Loner (Eddie Marsan), The Waitress (Abbie Cornish), Handsome Johnnie and Johnnie’s Girl (Richard Brake and Diora Baird, respectively), The Deputy (David Morse), with a few others ranging from a motel clerk to a dysfunctional couple arguing at a gas station rounding out this chamber piece. To the credit of the supporting cast, they are also doing the best they can with what’s here and are not the problem. And while it’s fine that director Nick Stagliano (alongside screenwriter Jack C Wolfe) want to shift the established internal crisis of the protagonist into a full-blown mystery, exploring whether or not he can shake off the tragic ending of his last outing to succeed, they lose all sense of characterization for this assassin in favor of predictable twists and turns. At around the halfway point, you get a sense of where The Virtuoso is going and what pitfalls the story could fall into. Not to mention, The Virtuoso magically turns into a bumbling idiot of a hired killer in ways that have no correlation whatsoever to his newly haunted state of mind.

In a nutshell, anything potentially interesting there is about the titular hitman is squandered once the real plot kicks in. That mystery turns out to be generic and unsatisfactory. The Virtuoso occasionally gets to interact with a waitress that’s interested in him, except he can’t let his guard down for a second around her hinting at the reality that even if he wants to, he will never be able to return to a normal life. Of course, like anything promising within The Virtuoso , it doesn’t really matter because it’s too busy trying to outsmart the audience, which it also fails at.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd , or email me at [email protected]

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The virtuoso, common sense media reviewers.

Violent assassin thriller lacks logic; sex/nudity, language.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

No positive messages (the film is about profession

An assassin's conscience and compassion grow throu

Extremely violent. A highly skilled mercenary assa

Two long sex scenes with thrusts and grunts; a wom

Strong language includes "bitch," "goddammit," "pr

Chevrolet vehicle/logo featured.

Drinking. Pharmaceutical drugs are combined to cre

Positive Messages

No positive messages (the film is about professional assassins). An elderly man who has seen it all declares, "humans are just homicidal killing machines."

Positive Role Models

An assassin's conscience and compassion grow throughout the film, but it leads to negative outcomes. While there really aren't any notably positive representations, a woman is shown to be superior to men in a male-dominated industry.

Violence & Scariness

Extremely violent. A highly skilled mercenary assassin shoots, stabs, and poisons his targets; bloody, graphic imagery. Close-up of a gory gunshot wound. Horrific, detailed story about casualties of war. Fistfight. Person shown on fire from several different angles.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Two long sex scenes with thrusts and grunts; a woman's bare breasts are shown.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Strong language includes "bitch," "goddammit," "pr--k," and several uses of "f--k." Racist slur "g--ks."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

Drinking. Pharmaceutical drugs are combined to create a dangerous cocktail.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Virtuoso is a violent noir thriller about a hit man. The title refers to the assassin's cool-headed precision and seems to suggest that murder can be an art form. Following a common noir formula, the lead character ( Anson Mount ) narrates in between the action sequences. Director Nick Stangliano has described the movie's violence as "jaw dropping," and that's an excellent description: Expect bloody shootings, graphic stabbings, and brutal physical fights -- including an extreme close-up of a massive wound. A recurring flashback shows a mother on fire, her body engulfed in flames. A soldier's firsthand account of a cruel, sadistic siege on a village isn't accompanied by images, but it's disturbing nonetheless. Characters have simulated sex in a couple of scenes; bare breasts are shown. Language includes "pr--k," "f--k," and a racial slur. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Parents say (1)

Based on 1 parent review

Don’t be fooled by David Morse and Anthony Hopkins involvement

What's the story.

THE VIRTUOSO follows an unnamed, methodical assassin ( Anson Mount ) who's received an assignment cloaked in mystery. He's been given the time and location of where to make the hit, but the name of the target has ambiguity. As he gathers clues in the small town where he's assigned to eliminate his target, the killer known for his detached and level-headed skill set finds himself distracted by a beautiful, warm-hearted waitress ( Abbie Cornish ).

Is It Any Good?

Taking a cue from its characters' wardrobe, this neo-noir is the black turtleneck of thrillers: It's self-important and pretentious, and it doesn't hide the flaws it thinks it does. Silk-throated Mount narrates his inner thoughts, but, unlike a '40s gumshoe thinking through the case to viewers, he speaks ( to himself? to us? ) in second person. Are we supposed to be a cool-headed assassin in this scenario? It serves no purpose other than to sound cool and edgy, and no doubt director Nick Stagliano and writer James C. Wolf thought the device was terribly clever. Terrible, yes. Clever, no. In fact, it may spark memories of a Choose Your Own Adventure book.

The film's other elements also prove that there's a fine line between brilliant and ridiculous. The characters are nameless, identified as The Mentor, The Waitress, The Loner, etc. The violence is intentionally gratuitous, and it's easy to picture the filmmakers giddily thinking up how the kills would go down, perhaps even seeing themselves as "virtuosos" as well. And the sex scenes are rather blunt. While it must've been fun to create a noir story set in the modern age, it's all so preposterous that the end result feels like parody rather than an homage.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about The Virtuoso 's violence . How is it used to tell the story? Is any of it gratuitous? Does it feel thrilling or shocking?

What are the hallmarks of the noir genre? How does this film compare to others in the noir or neo-noir categories?

Is the main character a "hero"? Are viewers meant to find him sympathetic even though he's a criminal? What makes villain characters compelling?

Do you find the use of second-person narration effective in The Virtuoso ? Why, or why not?

Movie Details

In theaters : April 30, 2021
On DVD or streaming : May 4, 2021
Cast : Anthony Hopkins , Anson Mount , Abbie Cornish
Director : Nick Stagliano
Studio : Lionsgate
Genre : Thriller
Run time : 110 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : violence, sexuality/nudity and language
Last updated : April 8, 2024

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The Virtuoso (2021)

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The Virtuoso Parent Guide

From its gory beginnings, it's an uphill struggle to drag this movie back into tense thriller territory..

Digital on Demand: In the dangerous underground world of professional assassins, anything can happen. So when a killer codenamed "The Virtuoso" strolls into a small town's out-of-the-way diner, everyone inside is at risk.

Release date April 30, 2021

Run Time: 110 minutes

Get Content Details

The guide to our grades, parent movie review by keith hawkes.

An unnamed assassin, known only as The Virtuoso (Anson Mount), has had a successful career for one reason: He’s a very, very careful man. He diligently observes each of his targets, maps out exits, learns the area… but even with extensive preparation, killing someone unobserved is no mean feat. And failure can mean capture, death, or collateral damage. When one of his assignments goes awry, the collateral damage leaves him with more guilt than he’s used to.

For his next assignment, his employer (Anthony Hopkins) sends him on a simpler mission to a remote diner. The only details he’s given are the words “White River” and a time. So when the assassin walks into the restaurant and finds it full of strangers, he has his work cut out for him: Identify and eliminate “White River” without being compromised. And that’s not going to be easy…

Any movie that opens with a scene of a man getting shot in the unmentionables while having sex with a prostitute isn’t terribly interested in subtlety. From there, it’s an uphill struggle to get the film back into tense thriller territory. Our protagonist is slightly less interesting than dry white toast, which is never good, and Anthony Hopkins barely has any screen-time, which is worse. Abbie Cornish certainly puts in some work trying to make this interesting, but the overwhelming blandness of the script pretty much buries her anyway.

As you will have already guessed, this is not a good choice for teen viewers. Nudity and bloody violence are the biggest issues here. There’s comparatively little profanity, though, so if that’s all you’re worried about you should be alright. Unless, of course, you also care that the movie is interesting – which this really isn’t. Even if it’s not as aggressively unwatchable as Vanquish , The Virtuoso has a long way to go before it gets good. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go watch a nature documentary or kids TV show and try to forget that I just watched some schmuck get shot in the family jewels.

About author

Keith hawkes, watch the trailer for the virtuoso.

The Virtuoso Rating & Content Info

Why is The Virtuoso rated R? The Virtuoso is rated R by the MPAA for violence, sexuality/nudity and language.

Violence: Several people are shot and killed. A man is shot in the genitals while having sex. One person is killed outright in a car accident and another is set alight and burns slowly to death. A person is stabbed. An individual is poisoned. One character is seen suturing an open wound. A brutal massacre of women and children is described in detail but not shown. Sexual Content: There are two sex scenes which both feature female toplessness. Profanity: There are three extreme profanities and occasional use of mild profanities and terms of deity. Alcohol / Drug Use: An individual is seen drinking and is unwittingly dosed with a medley of prescription medications.

Page last updated October 2, 2021

There’s Still Tomorrow review – resoundingly sentimental drama in postwar Rome

Paola Cortellesi’s directing debut, in which she also stars, depicts gruelling domestic abuse before finding its way to startling redemption

I talian actor and singer Paola Cortellesi has been breaking hearts and box office records on her home turf with this directing debut. It’s a richly and even outrageously sentimental working-class drama of postwar Rome, a story of domestic abuse whose heroine finally escapes from misogyny and cruelty through a piece of narrative sleight-of-hand that borders on magic-neorealism, performed with shameless theatrical flair and marvellously composed in luminous monochrome. The film pays homage to early pictures by De Sica and Fellini, and Cortellesi’s own performance is consciously in the spirit of movie divas such as Anna Magnani, Sophia Loren and Giulietta Masina.

The scene is Rome just after the end of the second world war, when American GIs were a presence on the streets and Italian women had just been given the right to vote – though exercising it while under the baleful eye of the film’s misogynist menfolk is another matter. Cortellesi plays Delia, a woman who is being regularly beaten by her brutish husband Ivano (Valerio Mastandrea). He makes her slave around the house, skivvy to his cantankerous bedridden father (great stuff from veteran comic turn Giorgio Colangeli), and do odd jobs around the city, the cash payment for which she has to hand over at the end of every day. Their teenage daughter Marcella (Romana Maggiora Vergano), who sees how her mother is being brutalised and humiliated, is made to sleep in the same bedroom as her two brattish kid brothers, and when she receives a proposal of marriage from a well-off local boy, she, like her parents, is thrilled – at first.

Delia also has admirers: a GI is concerned by her bruises and an old flame, now working as a mechanic, wonders what might have been. But aside from this, Delia has a piece of paper she’s keeping secret. Is it a love letter? Some legal document that might somehow get her away from this terrible prison? Not exactly, but Cortellesi keeps us on the edge of our seats with some nailbiting suspense which finally fuses the personal and the political in a way which, though a bit of a cheat, hits a resounding final chord. This is storytelling with terrific confidence and panache.

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Chief Film Critic

‘Boy Kills World’ Review: Bill Skarsgård Is a Deaf-Mute Avenger in an Action Film So Ultraviolent It’s Like ‘John Wick’ Gone ‘Clockwork Orange’ 10 hours ago
‘Uncropped’ Review: An Enticing Portrait of James Hamilton Makes You Wonder: Is He the Greatest New York Photographer Ever? 2 days ago
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In “ Boy Kills World ,” Bill Skarsgård has burning eyes and model cheekbones, sinewy arms popping out of a dirty red athletic vest, and a feral pout that makes him look like Jean-Claude van Damme crossed with Lou Reed. He plays a deaf-mute avenger, known only as Boy, who kills people in insanely violent ways. Yet through it all, the character retains his innocence. He’s a wounded wild child in a man’s body.

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So what does it mean that in a movie like “Boy Kills World,” that level of cheeky violent sadism has been turned into a pure lark — the new extreme threshold of mainstream entertainment? The fact that this is what we now seek out for kicks may be scarier than anything in “A Clockwork Orange.”

Yet the pop culture of the last 50 years has primed us for it: the slasher movies, the video games, the high-body-count delirium of the “John Wick” films, which may have been the first films to package this kind of relentlessness as cutthroat jollies for the megaplex. The kill-kill-kill spirit of “John Wick” made a film like “Boy Kills World” possible, yet “Boy Kills World” takes it all a step further. It’s the action film as slasher movie as gonzo damaged-superhero movie. It’s a depraved vision, yet I got caught up in its kick-ass revenge-horror pizzazz, its disreputable commitment to what it was doing.

Boy, who can read lips, understands most of what’s happening around him, and he reacts to events by talking directly to us on the soundtrack, in an exaggerated he-man voice (like Mel Gibson’s in “Mad Max”). You could say that the movie, in a way, cheats the fact that he can’t speak, but Boy’s quips-from-his-inner-voice lend “Boy Kills World” a graphic-novel funkiness.

Boy has gone out into the world to right its wrongs, but what’s standing atop the pyramid isn’t the usual stoic power addict. It’s a dysfunctional family of rulers who are at each other’s throats. Mohr, working from a script by Tyler Burton Smith and Arend Remmers, has fun fleshing out these baroque villains. I enjoyed Brett Gelman as the bearded brother who’s like a diamond-district chiseler who thinks he’s a brilliant screenwriter, and Famke Janssen as the matriarch who’s losing her mind. As the dynasty’s media ringleader, Sharlto Copley does his showboat thing (and gets what he deserves). Mohr stages one spectacular sequence — the slaughterhouse version of a winter-wonderland television commercial — that would make Alex from “A Clockwork Orange” applaud in glee.

There’s a big twist — or really, two in one. The state soldier, named June27 (Jessica Rothe), who speaks in slogans flashed onto her digital combat visor turns out to be closer to home than we think. And a character we assume is heroic is revealed to be an emotionally broken monster. All of that succeeds in holding our attention, and the climactic fight — a threesome — is shot and choreographed with brutal visual wizardry. It’s all held together by Skarsgård’s performance, and the trick of it is that you never catch him playing dumb. Yet Boy is often a beat behind what’s happening. That’s what makes us warm up to him; he’s a blood-spattered avenger in spite of himself. He turns the old ultraviolence into child’s play.

Reviewed at Regal Union Square, New York, April 24, 2024. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 115 MIN.

Production: A Lionsgate, Roadside Attractions release of a Nthibah Pictures, Hammerstone Studios, Vertigo Entertainment production. Producers: Sam Raimi, Zainab Azizi, Roy Lee, Wayne Fitzjohn, Simon Swart, Stuart Manashil, Dan Kagan. Executive producers: Sipho Nkosi, Mxolisi Mgojo, Humphrey Mathe, Bill Skarsgård, Reza Brojerdi, Christian Mercuri, Moritz Mohr, Andrew Childs.
Crew: Director: Moritz Mohr. Screenplay: Tyler Burton Smith, Arend Remmers. Camera: Peter Matjasko. Editor: Lucian Barnard. Music: Ludvig Forssell, El Michels Affair.
With: Bill Skarsgård, Jessica Rothe, Michelle Dockery, Jamke Janssen, Sharlto Copley, Brett Gelman, Isaiah Mustafa, Andrew Koji.

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Review: Generic from its title onward, ‘Boy Kills World’ does little to differentiate its gore

A man with a bloodied face is ready for action.

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Tirelessness proves tiresome in “Boy Kills World,” a jokey revenge massacre starring Bill Skarsgård as its unnamed “Boy.” The kills are a desperate bid for mythic carnage status, and the world is a dystopian cartoon unimaginatively cribbed from “The Hunger Games.”

Apart from mistaking energy for exhilaration, the movie is a mostly flavorless puree of dark humor, comic-book sentimentality and ultra-bloody combat. But it’s the relentless and banal video-game aesthetic that may get you involuntarily reaching for a controller in hopes of finding a pause button.

Wasting no time — because who needs background or mood? — Moritz Mohr’s feature debut drops us in a totalitarian post-apocalyptic world just when, as part of a televised ritual called the Culling, a little girl in a pink onesie is shot in cold blood by grim-looking, black-clad Hilda Van Der Koy ( Famke Janssen ), matriarch of the sadistic family running this tyrannical land. This future indeed looks horrible. Cut to the girl’s surviving brother, now an orphan being raised over the years in the art of punch-stab-and-kick vengeance by a wild-eyed shaman whom action aficionados will recognize as Yayan Ruhian from the legendary “Raid” movies.

Comedy nerds will pick up that it isn’t Skarsgård narrating his own deaf-mute character’s inner thoughts but rather animation stalwart H. Jon Benjamin (“Archer,” “Bob’s Burgers”). A post-completion revision (early screenings featured Skarsgård‘s voice), it’s a tonally jarring choice, since Benjamin’s winking cockiness can’t make lines like “I am an instrument of death” sound serious, and even when laughs are intended in the dippy screenplay by Tyler Burton Smith and Arend Remmers, they fall flat. Though explained as the Boy appropriating his favorite arcade game hero’s voice, the running commentary plays like an open mic-night reject hijacking a B movie.

Mohr is considerably more invested in the gory melees, each goon-vanquishing level getting Boy closer to the Van Der Koy compound and the Culling program’s vicious architects: Hilda’s show-producing sister Melanie ( Michelle Dockery ), her TV host husband ( Sharlto Copley ) and brother Gideon ( Brett Gelman ). Each baddie’s shouty, smarmy performance seemingly exists only to be wished a violent end, yet Copley — an old hand at over-the-top villainy — is at least watchable, as Lee Van Cleef and Jack Palance were in their love-to-hate heyday.

The exhaustive fights, coordinated by Dawid Szatarski and which include nightmarish use of a cheese grater, are designed in the extended-play style that “Oldboy” dynamically ushered in . (Now it’s ubiquitous and outlandishly effects-enhanced, as seen in this spring’s “Road House” and “Monkey Man.” ) There are differences, of course, and Mohr’s bag-of-tricks approach hews closer to the merry-go-round artificiality of “Kingsman” director Matthew Vaughn than the modern-dance muscularity perfected by “John Wick” helmer Chad Stahelski.

For those preferring choreography and performance to a lookie-lookie director armed with a drone, “Boy Kills World” will disappoint, even as the music by Ludvig Forssell and El Michels Affair provides suitably thumping accompaniment.

So why overdo it? The shame is that “John Wick 4” alum Skarsgård, when not sharing time with that ridiculous voice-over, is not only a commanding mayhem machine with his lanky physique and those intense eyes but also occasionally a compellingly naïve figure, even if Boy’s sleeveless red top can sometimes make him look like an ’80s music video extra. But he’s ultimately more a game piece than anything else.

As the climax with a helmeted assassin (Jessica Rothe) draws near, there is one admirably unforeseen twist up the film’s blood-smeared sleeve. I’m not sure it’s a good thing, though, that it takes so long to get there. For this boy to kill the world, the movie shouldn’t need to kill our patience first.

'Boy Kills World'

Rating: R, for strong bloody violence and gore throughout, language, some drug use and sexual references Running time: 1 hour, 51 minutes Playing: In wide release Friday, April 26

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‘Boy Kills World’ Review: A Wide-Eyed Assassin

Beefed up and bloodied, Bill Skarsgard goes mano a mano against disposable hordes in this dystopian action flick.

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A blood-streaked actor in a red vest looks off camera.

By Manohla Dargis

At least give it up for the stunt crew on “Boy Kills World,” a boneheaded action movie that gives some exceedingly fit performers — its hard-body star Bill Skarsgard very much included — a chance to flaunt their physical skills. To judge from all the grunting, the straining muscles and cascading sweat, Skarsgard, along with a few of his nimble co-stars and an army of stunt performers, puts in serious work to try to make the relentless bashing and smashing, flailing and dying look good. Too bad the filmmakers were incapable of doing the same.

Set in a discount dystopian hellscape, the story centers on, ta-da, Boy (Skarsgard), a saucer-eyed dynamo with an uninteresting back story who can neither hear nor talk. Once upon a time, for reasons that are laboriously teased out, he landed in the jungle, where he was taken under wing by a punishing caretaker, the Shaman. This cat is played with a lot of grimacing by the Indonesian martial-arts phenom Yayan Ruhian, of the “Raid” movies. Ruhian also shows up in “ John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum ,” which isn’t good , yet is still better than “Boy Kills World” because it was made by people who know how to showcase stunt fighting.

“Boy Kills World,” by contrast, consistently undermines its stunts with frustratingly clumsy filmmaking. Again and again, the frantic camera goes overly close when it should go wide — turning bodies into a chaotic jumble of parts — and the choppy over-editing makes matters worse. I’m not sure what the director Moritz Mohr thought he was doing here. (Sam Raimi is one of the producers.) It’s also unclear why anyone even bothered to concoct a story for Boy, because the only point of this ridiculousness is to watch Skarsgard flex his sculpted arms and take a great deal of brutal punishment so that he can dole out more. Rinse, repeat.

The story involves, yup, a revenge mission that the filmmakers fuss with by toggling between the past and present but that mostly finds Boy hunting a cartoon despot (Famke Janssen) and her minions (Jessica Rothe, Michelle Dockery, Brett Gelman). Andrew Koji also shows up as a sidekick for Boy, whom Skarsgard plays as a guileless killing machine. As he did in “It, ” the actor makes shrewd use of the whites of his eyes, turning them into attention-grabbing beacons. That’s understandable given that another actor (H. Jon Benjamin, of “Bob’s Burgers”) provides Boy’s internal voice using a putatively humorous tough-guy drone. This gimmick gets old fast, as does the movie, even as its hero and ideas remain underbaked.

Boy Kills World Rated R for action movie fighting and killing. Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes. In theaters.

Manohla Dargis is the chief film critic for The Times. More about Manohla Dargis

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The Virtuoso movie review & film summary (2021)
The Virtuoso. When Wile E. Coyote wasn't busy in his eternally fruitless pursuit of the Road Runner, he also appeared in a second string of shorts opposite Bugs Bunny, in which he'd inform Bugs that he was going to catch and eat him and that there was nothing to be done because he was so obviously Bugs' intellectual superior.
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Rated: 1/5 Feb 17, 2022 Full Review John Serba Decider Like many assassins in many movies before this, The Virtuoso is the Killer Who Finds His Conscience, and we couldn't care less. Aug 24, 2021 ...
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The Virtuoso review - Anthony Hopkins on autopilot for dull hitman thriller. Once you've worked out the big climactic twist after 15 minutes, you'll know this story of a strictly amateur ...
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It's not snowing, the virtuoso is wearing a pea coat — no gloves — and nobody is exhaling condensed breath. But OK. The Virtuoso Rated R for the usual paid-assassin movie stuff, plus nudity ...
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'The Virtuoso': Film Review. A professional assassin takes a challenging small-town assignment in a thriller starring Anson Mount, Abbie Cornish and Anthony Hopkins. By Sheri Linden.
The Virtuoso (2021)
The Virtuoso: Directed by Nick Stagliano. With Anson Mount, Abbie Cornish, Anthony Hopkins, David Morse. Danger, deception and murder descend upon a sleepy town when a professional assassin accepts a new assignment from his enigmatic boss.
The Virtuoso (film)
The Virtuoso is a 2021 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed and produced by Nick Stagliano. ... On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 18%, based on 55 reviews, with an average rating of 4.1/10. The website's consensus reads, ...
Movie Review: The Virtuoso (2021)
It's a difficult balancing act. The Virtuoso almost gets it right, and the film does a lot on a low budget, but it remains minor league fare. Critical Movie Critic Rating: 3. Movie Review: Promising Young Woman (2020) Movie Review: Vanquish (2021) Tagged: assassin, hitman, murder, sheriff. Movie review of The Virtuoso (2021) by The Critical ...
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Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 27, 2021. The lead character is supposed to be an expert assassin, who thinks so highly of himself that he calls himself a 'virtuoso,' but he makes so many ...
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Playing a mysterious 'Mentor' to the eponymous assassin, this year's Best Actor can't bring a po-faced script to more than momentary life. Dir: Nick Stagliano. Starring: Anson Mount, Abbie ...
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New from Lionsgate, The Virtuoso is the fourth film from director Nick Stagliano. Anson Mount (Christopher Pike in season two of Star Trek: Discovery) plays a veteran hitman contracted by his mentor (Anthony Hopkins) to undertake contract killings on demand, with few questions asked. With heavy use of voiceover, Mount's character (never named) expresses his thoughts and the lessons he has ...
Movie Review: The Virtuoso (2021)
Movie Review: The Virtuoso (2021) Now Available. As we watch him execute his target at the beginning of the largely lifeless "The Virtuoso," Anson Mount's unnamed hitman regales us with tongue-twister levels of alliteration. In his clunky voice-over narration, Mount describes the tricks of his trade.
'The Virtuoso' movie review: Anthony Hopkins elevates stylish hitman
Anson Mount is a mysterious man on a mysterious mission in The Virtuoso, a tired and overly-familiar hitman movie nearly saved by some slick filmmaking and charismatic performances. There's nothing new here, but this competent production is a fun little ride as long as expectations are low. Mount is a Man with No Name who calls himself The ...
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Through the cardboard-esque performance of Mount, who approaches the titular character like an even duller and emotionless incarnation of Agent 47 from the popular Hitman franchise, the film becomes a trudging, inert crime thriller drawn from tired tropes and an unearned sense of cool due to its subject matter. It would be impressive how tedious and uninteresting The Virtuoso makes the job of ...
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The Virtuoso Plot Synopsis. The Virtuoso's plot revolves around a mysterious assassin, known simply as The Virtuoso. Haunted by "collateral damage" in an earlier mission, Virtuoso is given a new mission by his mentor; to hunt down and kill a rogue hitman. However, there's a catch. All our protagonist is given is a time and location; 5pm ...
The Virtuoso Movie Review
Pharmaceutical drugs are combined to cre. Parents need to know that The Virtuoso is a violent noir thriller about a hit man. The title refers to the assassin's cool-headed precision and seems to suggest that murder can be an art form. Following a common noir formula, the lead character (Anson Mount) narrates in between the action sequences.
The Virtuoso (2021)
Highly Skilled In Mundanity. The Virtuoso sets itself up to be a really intriguing assassin-based thriller. Unfortunately, this film is neither thrilling nor particularly interesting. With a slow pace and a main character devoid of charisma, The Virtuoso takes an interesting idea and runs it into the ground in the worst way possible.
The Virtuoso (2021)
The premise of the movie is that the Virtuoso is a professional assassin who is remorseful for an accidental killing. His Mentor, for whatever reason, decides he needs to be dead, but instead of just killing him when he had ample opportunity, the Mentor devises a complex scheme whereby 4 killers are sent on a mission to kill *someone* for *some ...
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The Virtuoso Rating & Content Info . Why is The Virtuoso rated R? The Virtuoso is rated R by the MPAA for violence, sexuality/nudity and language.. Violence: Several people are shot and killed. A man is shot in the genitals while having sex. One person is killed outright in a car accident and another is set alight and burns slowly to death.
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April 25, 2024 4:33 PM PT. Tirelessness proves tiresome in "Boy Kills World," a jokey revenge massacre starring Bill Skarsgård as its unnamed "Boy.". The kills are a desperate bid for ...
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