Review of The Job

The Job (I) (2003)
Haha
15 November 2004
Warning: Spoilers
A friend lent me a bootleg DVD with Matrix Revolutions and Return of the King on, looking to remedy the appalling gaps in my knowledge of contemporary cinema. Apparently this is what the cool kids watch whilst I gobble down Myrna Loy flicks. Having consumed both of those films (one good, the other less so) I decided to watch The Job, included on the same £5 DVD. I was aware that it would be dreadful, and indeed it was.

Daryl Hannah plays a hitwoman who encounters all sorts of problems whilst trying to carry out a hit. She is pregnant and spends much of the film lacerating herself in an attempt to kill her potentially adorable offspring. At the same time, she feels empathy for the wife of her target, also pregnant. So far, so crap, but it gets worse ... Hannah's boss is a borderline psychopath. We know this because he shouts a lot. He also asks her to undress, which she does, though you don't see anything, which seems rather cruel since the audience has to sit through enough risible dialogue before we reach this point. Hannah's boyfriend is an ex-priest whom she meets in a bar. After she is raped by a man with a shaven head (this scene is rather unpleasant and needn't have been shown by the director), she gets even more confused and angry than before. Brad Renfro plays Daryl's target. He is distressingly wooden and swears more than is healthy. He wants to sell the drugs Daryl is looking to reclaim, so that he can move to Phoenix with his girlfriend, an ex-hooker.

The film is directed by Kenny Golde with something approaching incompetence, though screenwriter err ... Kenny Golde is largely to blame, leaving the actors with nothing but howlingly hilarious dialogue ("You knocked-up bitch", "F*** you!"). Hannah does as well as she possibly can with the script, which isn't very well at all.

If the film is actually supposed to be rubbish, then I give it a ten.
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