WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, now in theaters.
At the heart of The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard are the titular trio — the bodyguard Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds), the hitman Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson) and Kincaid’s Sonia (Salma Hayek). The trio finds themselves on the run from the forces of Aristotle Papadopoulos (Antonio Banderas), who requires the technology the group has inadvertently stolen to help him bring chaos to Europe. Alongside him, Papadopoulos has amassed a surprisingly skilled group of killers, each of whom potentially serves as a genuine contrast to the main trio. However, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard fails to utilize them to the best of their potential, with the characters ultimately feeling wasted as a result.
Magnusson (Tom Hopper), like Bryce, is a certified and highly skilled bodyguard. While Bryce has been left in limbo after his license was suspended following the events of The Hitman’s Bodyguard, Magnusson has become a major figure within the bodyguarding world. Bryce considers him to be one of the most skilled in his profession, with his own wit and physical strength paling next to Magnusson.
Meanwhile, Zento (Kristofer Kamiyasu) is an advanced and skilled assassin and rival to Kincaid, with a deliberate mastery of advanced techniques that contrast heavily with the more straightforward gunplay utilized by Kincaid. Veronika (Gabriella Wright) is then positioned as a steely and unflappable counter to the more volatile and unpredictable Sonia, who’s a deadly killer in her own right.
In theory, these three make effective counters to each member of the group. Magnusson is someone Bryce can unfavorably compare himself to, with Bryce constantly self-doubting his skills and not being as cool and calculated as Magnusson. As for, Zento, he’s a cold technological killer juxtaposed against the hotheaded and rash Kincaid, showcasing what a genuine professional looks like. Veronika could have even been a loyal counterpoint to Sonia’s more fluid sensibilities, working alongside Papadopoulos as his dedicated partner instead of the duplicitous Sonia.
However, that’s not the case for The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard. There are moments when Magnusson is set up as the opposite of Bryce, with one particular comic highlight of the film being Bryce’s belief that Magnusson will know his every move — only for Magnusson to effectively just wing it because he has no idea who Bryce is. The character is also more or less removed from entire swaths of The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard. The film could have also highlighted how much more Bryce’s adopted father, Senior (Morgan Freeman), could have preferred Magnusson to his step-son, but this element is underplayed in lieu of a brief fistfight toward the conclusion, which ends with Bryce killing Magnusson by crashing his head into a jukebox.
Zento could have also become engaged in a long duel with Kincaid, where all his tech fails to keep up with Kincaid’s skill. This is the closest time The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard comes to embracing this rivalry concept, but after setting it up briefly in the final gunfight, it gets no real weight.
Worst of all, Veronika, who is given no discernable character outside of “she murders people,” is quickly killed off-screen by Sonia. It’s a shame because the concept could have helped give The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard a better throughline to follow, instead of becoming increasingly disjointed. Played either for laughs or drama, the rivals could have been a solid addition to the film — which is never fully utilized.
Directed by Patrick Hughes, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard stars Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Salma Hayek, Antonio Banderas, Morgan Freeman, Frank Grillo, Caroline Goodall, Rebecca Front, Gabriella Wright, Alice McMillan, Kristofer Kamiyasu, Tom Hopper, Blake Ritson and Richard E. Grant. The film is now in theaters.
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