This is new. Ageing hitman Wilson (Ian McShane) is tiring of his life of violence. He heads to the island of Fuerteventura for a job. His target is absent from his remote modern villa but Wilson notices a young blonde woman arrive and go for a swim in the pool. She rides a motorbike. He decides to have a quiet holiday and books into a local hotel. At a bar he befriends bartender Gloria (Nora Arnezeder) and realises she is the woman who was swimming at the villa. He is unexpectedly drawn to American Star, the ghostly shipwreck she shows him on a beach. He forms unexpected connections including young Max (Oscar Coleman) a fellow resident at the hotel whose father’s snoring keeps him out of his room. As Wilson lets his guard down, he notices he’s being followed and is surprised to meet fellow hitman Ryan (Adam Nagaitis) who intrudes on a lunch with Gloria. When Wilson is invited by Gloria to meet her glamorous mother Anne (Fanny Ardant) he is berated by Ryan and it is then he realises the real identity of his target … Were you born in that suit? A laconic hitman on one last job. It’s an oldie but a goody as tropes go and we liked it when McShane appeared in Sexy Beast, but also when Clooney played The American and Stamp was The Limey, thematically and tonally similar territories. And did we mention The Hit, a 1984 cult classic also set against an arid Spanish backdrop with blazing sun? Yes, when it works, it works and the ingredients are blended nicely in the screenplay by Nacho Faerna. I like to meet people. That meeting with a disingenuous blonde who turns out to be his mark is something that just might move things around in Wilson’s world. The steady accretion of detail as well as surprising family revelations chip away at him as surely as the sun burns off the dried up landscape and internal textures accumulate. Wilson is a military man, a Falklands veteran whose experiences dictate his actions now. His unexpected connection with Ryan doesn’t spare his handler shadow when the inevitable cathartic violence occurs, Chekhov dictating our dramatic rules and professional hitmen having work to do. Uncle sends his love. There is a terrific emotional undertow and pressure in a thriller which pulses with the intelligent and charming performance by McShane at its centre: his face, his eyes, his voice anchor this journey. When Ardant meets him she immediately detects danger for her daughter and their dancing is strangely gripping in a narrative which always keeps the audience one step away from brash exposition. The songs are very well chosen and there’s an impeccable score from Remate. Directed and edited by Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego with gorgeous cinematography by Jose David-Montero. Almost as old as me
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