Assassination Tango
dir. Duvall
Opens Fri April 11
Various Theaters
The last film written and directed by Robert Duvall was The Apostle, a heroic effort in which one of the greatest American actors of all time wrote a simple moral drama about a complicated, deeply conflicted man. It was a plum of a part, which played to all of Duvall’s strengths as an actor, particularly his ability to convey the zeal of a flawed man’s convictions, and the ever-so-subtle cracks that appear in those convictions when things begin to fall apart. The style of the film was restrained and serious, but most of all the film felt written; with the exception of Duvall’s Pentecostal rants, when the glory of GAWD seemed to take him over body and soul, every scene in the film was measured and intentional, leading through conflicts toward a conclusion. The Apostle was a bracing surprise that gave one faith that actors might have a capacity for self-knowledge greater than any other artists.
Assassination Tango is another matter altogether; a disappointment of such magnitude that you almost can’t believe your eyes. The film is piss-poor, specifically because all the choices made by Duvall in creating his last film seem to have been reversed. The story rambles in one direction, and then veers into a blind alley–the performances wind on and on like improv class in the seventh circle of Cassavetes hell, and the characters are wafer-thin excuses for the worst kind of cinematic vanity.
Duvall plays a grizzly, aging hit man with a younger girlfriend (Kathy Baker, in a role that almost doesn’t exist) whose pre-teen daughter is clearly the raison d’être for the relationship. He’s the kind of career criminal who lives by a set of inflexible “rules” that keep him alive and his makeshift family safe. When he is called away to Argentina to kill a politician (Why? I don’t know. Why do you ask?), he finds himself captivated by the rhythms of the tango, and falls in with a beautiful Argentine mother (Luciana Pedraza), also much younger. Needless to say, he soon violates his “rules,” imperiling his life and the safety of the seemingly helpless, ultra-needy ladies he left behind.
Duvall hams his way through the film in search, seemingly, of a meaningful direction for the story. Though he tries several (domestic drama, crime potboiler, character study, cross-cultural musical), he never makes a choice, settling instead on a series of improvisations whose only justification is an extended series of dance scenes. Though Assassination Tango might sound good on paper (lousy title notwithstanding), it’s lost from the very first scene.