Plot: A gun-for-hire gets caught up in a political scandal whilst fighting his own inner demons.

Outside of the hype this was getting from other film festivals, I was also intrigued by this feature as it stars Joaquin Phoenix.

The 3-time Oscar nominee is definitely one of the most talented actors around right now.
I like it that he seems to pick and choose his projects and seeing him feels like a treat.

I think that's enough of a briefing. I'm just going to go straight into the film, and I think this is what we call in the industry, a 'hot mess'.

It took a while for me to fully get what was going on. By the time I could tell how this story was being told, I was beginning to appreciate it a lot more. But it's slow-pacing and minimalist style in telling its story frustrated me and made this annoying to watch.

Joaquin Phoenix is doing his damnedest to makes this an interesting watch. He is clearly playing a much troubled character with a dark past and seeing his mental breakdowns was certainly presented in unique way. While I think it was as good as it could have been, it was not captivating enough to soften the blow.
That's really all I can say about the performances, as the rest of the cast had very little contribution. I did like the small moments involving Ekaterina Samsonov and Judith Roberts. But this film is all about Phoenix.

There were some good action scenes that varied in its approach in regards to the camerawork. That included one stand-out scene in a motel room that certainly gripped me.
It is also well shot throughout, and I liked the general shock value at various times.

I'm glad I found some good aspects, otherwise this would have been a disaster. I'm afraid I felt it was dull for the most part despite only being 1hr 25mins long.
The story has potential to be interesting. But it's as if it was trying to confuse itself and it felt like I was a watching a badly executed Nicolas Winding Refn feature or a self indulgent version of Taxi Driver.
The director has gone for a minimalist approach to the dialogue as well as telling what's going on. When this type of story-telling works, it's great to watch. But for me, the atmospheric tone did not work for me. Not even the unnecessarily over-emphasizing score could help improve my opinion of this.

Despite this strong negativity, there is just enough good content to barely give this a pass rating and Phoenix's performance is pretty good.
But this also felt like a big disappointment. It had lots of content that could have been gripping and exciting. Instead, whilst I did appreciate what they were trying to do, it frustrated me.

There is definitely an audience for this. But I'm most certainly not one of them.

Rating: 7/10