The Virtuoso

Last night I went to see the action thriller The Virtuoso but, ultimately, I didn't find it to be very thrilling.  The Virtuoso (Anson Mount) is a highly paid assassin known for his meticulous planning and attention to detail (he tells us so in an elaborate second-person narration as he carries out a hit on a mobster).  He is given a job by The Mentor (Anthony Hopkins) without the requisite time that he needs for planning and, due to circumstances beyond his control, it goes horribly wrong resulting in collateral damage.  He is haunted by this and ignores a number of jobs until The Mentor gives him one he cannot refuse.  He only has a time, a location, and a mysterious clue to use to identify his target, a fellow assassin.  He arrives at the appointed place at the appointed time and sees several possibilities: a Loner (Eddie Marsan), a Waitress (Abbie Cornish), a Stranger (Richard Brake), a Local Girl (Diora Baird), and a Deputy (David Morse).  After observing them without discovering his target, he decides to eliminate them all one by one.  However, this assignment is not what it appears to be.  The premise of this movie is actually quite intriguing but the execution (pun intended) is incredibly bland.  Because the pacing is so slow, I was anticipating a build-up to something dramatic but I guessed the plot twist early on so it was a bit anticlimactic.  Mount’s performance is not engaging enough for his character or his actions to be compelling and the excessive voice-over gets very tedious very quickly because it is so monotone.  I wasn't invested in any of the other characters either because they have almost no development which wastes the considerable talents of the actors in these roles.  The only highlight is Hopkins who has one impressive monologue (but phones in the rest of his performance).  All of this could be forgiven if the action sequences were exciting but, alas, even they are few and far between and the lighting is so dark that you can't really see what is happening.  Despite an interesting story and a talented cast, this is a dull and boring movie and I recommend giving it a miss.