Assassination Tango
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Movie Reviews of Assassination Tango
Movie Review: Does not quite click
Summary: 3 Stars
Actor Robert Duvall apparently has a liking for the tango dance, and wanted to share his passion with the world via a film. However, perhaps he felt that something needed to be added to the storyline to reach a wider audience. Thus, as writer, director, and producer of ASSASSINATION TANGO, he added another plot - or is it a subplot? - about a professional killer hired for a South American wet job. Duvall plays John Anderson, an aging hit man in the employ of Big Apple mobster, Frankie (Frank Gio). The light of Anderson's life is 10-year old Jenny (Katherine Miller), the daughter of his significant other, Maggie (Kathy Baker). Though Jenny's birthday is the following week, John accepts an assignment in Argentina to whack a retired general. Frankie assures him that the job should only take three days - a quick down and back in time for birthday cake and presents. However, once in Buenos Aires, the hit is postponed, and John must cool his heels for three weeks. During that period, Anderson's anger over the delay dissipates as he discovers the tango. Or rather, as he re-discovers the tango, which is more structured and passionately choreographed in Argentina than the comparatively staid version back home. And it doesn't hurt that he becomes enthralled with tango dancer Manuela (Luciana Pedraza), who consents to give him lessons.
It's not that ASSASSINATION TANGO is a bad film. Nothing with Duvall can be awful. But the bilateral plot didn't click. On one hand, it was never explained why the general needed killing beyond vague references to some terrible things he'd done in the past, presumably against Argentine innocents. That wasn't enough for me to cheer on Anderson's success in the endeavor beyond a laissez-faire goodwill that I would minimally grant the protagonist of any story. On the other hand, there never seemed to be much chemistry between John and Manuela. At one point early in their relationship, Anderson asks the young woman if he'd "have a chance" with her if he was younger. With a coy smile, Manuela answers that he has a chance now. It's a brief spark that fails to erupt into flames.
Anderson is perhaps not one you'd want buying a prepubescent girl ice cream, though his conduct with Jenny is irreproachable and devoted. There are some murky corners to his character that go unexplored, as the encounter with an Argentine prostitute. Therefore, the best reason to see this film is the wonderful dancing. Assuming you're a tango fan, that is. If you're not particularly, then you might be reduced to ogling Pedraza's gorgeous legs to get back the price of the ticket. Not bad value, that.
Movie Review: THE PLOT FAILS TO TWIRL AS MUCH AS THE DANCING
Summary: 3 Stars
Assassination Tango is about reclaiming one's soul through the innocence and wonder of a child. It is about the preoccupation with our self-image and the ability of some of us to be both ruthless and loving, amoral yet touched by innocence and art. Duvall, who wrote, starred in and directed this movie, wants to convey the transcendental power of the tango. Unfortunately, the film fails to get under the skin of its characters or its sketchy social commentary. It resonates more like a feeble soft-shoe number than an intense dance with life and death.While the examination of the world of the Tango in Argentina is interesting, especially if you love dancing, the vehicle used is a banal "a hitman goes native for a while, but gets to go home again" theme. The script is flawed and the movie ends with lots unresolved.
The photography in both Brooklyn and Argentina contains many scenes of breathtaking beauty. Duvall's scenes with Luciana Pedraza ( Manuela) are magical ,as are the sequences involving her teaching Mr. Duvall to tango. Geraldine Rojas as Pirucha delivers a beautiful speech on the relationship of tango to life. There's a slight romance, but even though Duvall and Pedraza are real-life lovers, their onscreen chemistry is negligible, and too much of the film's thematic exploration of tango is delivered in clumsy and didactic dialogue sequences instead of blistering action on the dance floor.
In the last act, it heats up as a thriller, with the usual double-crosses and hairbreadth escapes, but it's such a poor job of storytelling that through the entire finale it's impossible to figure out what is happening, who the various gangland players are, who is killing whom, and why.
Recommended rental, maybe, but not something I'd really watch more than once.
Movie Review: Interesting film exercise for a limited audience
Summary: 3 Stars
"Assassination Tango" is a fascinating character study which suffers, perhaps, from its being too secretive about its protagonist. This lack of openness may have been done intentionally by writer, director and star Robert Duvall because his character, John Anderson, seems very close to the edge of madness. Anderson himself probably does not know quite what's going on in his own mind. Anderson lives a dual life in New York City. He has a live-in girlfriend [Kathy Bates]. Her ten-year daughter, which he has more or less adopted, is the great passion in his life. Both the girlfriend and the daughter adore Anderson. What neither knows is that his real job is that of an assassin for a group of New York mobsters. When his bosses approach him to do one last, well paying hit, he reluctantly agrees. Off he goes to Buenos Aires, where he play a cat-and-mouse game with the locals who hired him. Are they dealing honestly with him, or is he being set up? While he waits to find out, he meets a beautiful local girl and explores the art of The Tango with her.
The point of the movie, I suppose, is that many people really do possess a dual nature. Anderson is both a lover and a killer, and he has reached the age where these conflicting roles truly collide.
`Assassination Tango' is a movie for people who love movies and great acting. For others, there is either not enough `assassination' or enough `tango'.
Movie Review: Good and Bad
Summary: 3 Stars
If you are a normal person, you won't particularly like this movie. The good here is that this movie casts aside conventions on acting. This movie was made to be as realistic as possible. Trouble is - do you really want to get that close? To me, watching this movie is a little like what I imagine sitting for hours in a jail cell with a notorious murderer would be like. It probably wouldn't be a good time, and neither is this movie.
If you are an abnormal person, and in need of a life, you may like this movie. I came away from it wondering if Robert Duvall with all his wealth, in the fading years of his career, decided to throw caution (and money) to the wind and make a movie HE really wanted to make, regardless of whether or not the audience would enjoy it. (These Hollywood people can get into some pretty strange stuff.) Maybe that's what this film is really about.
If you are bored some evening and want to watch something out of the ordinary, this might be an okay movie, but if you want my advise, read a book instead.
Movie Review: Flawed film worth a look to fans of Duvall or tango
Summary: 3 Stars
A low-level Mafia hitman is sent to Argentina to kill a retired general for his 'crimes against humanity'. The general has an accident (breaks his leg) and so the assasination is postponed and the hitman, who likes ballroom dancing, takes tango lessons.The film is basically an excuse to show off the tango sequences and dancing of Duvall's current girlfriend (in real life). She basically steals the movie. Duvall is a great actor but this isn't the best vehicle for him though it could have been much better with a better script and a more compelling story.
As it is the story is weak and flawed. Still, Duvall in a mediocre film is better than most other actors around and his girlfriend is spectacular. Worth viewing once, especially for Duvall fans or fans of tango.