Despite the preponderance of “wacky hit man” comedies already unleashed upon the world (measured by the shitty yardstick known as Eight Heads In A Duffel Bag), it seems there are still efforts being made to succeed where countless others have failed. And if you’re going to try and bring some appeal to such a moribund subgenre, you could do much worse than get Sam Rockwell and Anna Kendrick to star. Mr. Right (not to be confused with the other Mr. Rights) looks to be wholly dependent upon the delightful charms of its leading man and lady, so your susceptibility to their charisma will be the determining factor in whether the film seems inviting or excruciating.
Kendrick plays an unlucky-in-love protagonist who finds herself in a meet-cute with Rockwell’s nameless hit man. The twist on the “hit man’s ethical awakening” here finds him killing the people who try to hire him, because—as he tells the woman in the trailer, just before plugging her full of lead—“murder is wrong.” But a crew of baddies (including American treasure James Ransone and Wu-Tang Svengali RZA) and an F.B.I. agent (Tim Roth) are there to cause problems, and give the rom-com cliches some action beats to play off of.
Mr. Right comes out in select theaters and VOD on April 8, so you’ve got a couple months to decide whether Rockwell and Kendrick’s innate likability are enough to make you watch.