Wild Target (Rialto)
Directed: Jonathan Lynn.
Starring: Bill Nighy, Emily Blunt, Rupert Grint, Martin Freeman.

Wild Target was – in short – zany, odd and a wee bit wild. It seemed to be a confused film, taking a very simple storyline but filling it with characters very strange and extreme that the whole situation became a bit farcical and I'm still not sure how I feel about it.

Victor Maynard (Nighy) lives an easy life as one of the best British assassins. Cool, calm and calculated, he suddenly finds himself in a sticky situation where he is sent to kill Rose (Blunt), but ends up falling for her ridiculous nature and seductive charm. Now, the pair is in a predicament when a hit man is sent to finish the job.

Two paragraphs, 20 minutes on and I still don't know how I feel about this film. My flatmate and I had a good laugh over our ice-cream at the slapstick comedy escape routines as the group are trying to escape the assassins. But, I think I was just too bewildered how Rose and Victor manage to have this weird romantic relationship. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against beautiful young women going after old middle aged men, but it just felt very strange in the film. All I could think was that she was potentially suffering from Stockholm Syndrome and this was the reason for her interest.

Emily Blunt is, as always, a darling to watch on screen. Ever since she appeared as the bitchy, weight-obsessed fashionista in ‘The Devil Wears Prada', I have been a fan. She mixed the right amount of seduction with a reckless carefree attitude that makes Rose such a hilarious character. Swaning about, getting into all kinds of trouble and then running away to let the rest of the group pick up the pieces.

Rupert Grint does a nice job to escape from ‘that ginger kid in Harry Potter', playing a pot-smoking slacker who inadvertently gets caught up in the mess trying to save Rose. My only complaint is that he spends a lot of time in a bath, and considering I still think he looks like he is 12 years old, I found this a bit off putting.

Nighy is good at what he does – the suave Englishman. Be it Love Actually as a rocker, or The Boat That Rocked as a…rocker, he does it with this stuffy English demeanour that is always undermined by the character he plays.

This film is weird, and both my flatmate and I were a little bewildered at how we really felt about the film, but agreed we liked it. A simple little plot executed with the most bizarre situations can turn out to be a recipe for light-hearted fun.