Assassination Tango
Leading man Robert Duvall writes and directs his third feature, the romantic thriller Assassination Tango. John J. (Duvall) is an aging hit man who has settled down into family life in New York with teacher Maggie (Kathy Baker). After he is offered a good sum of money, he accepts a job to kill an Argentinean General in Buenos Aires. When he gets there, he finds out he has to wait three weeks to finish the job, so he stays in Argentina and studies the tango. He meets young dancer Manuela (real-life girlfriend Luciana Pedraza making her film debut) and the two become dance partners and begin to flirt with one another. Meanwhile, the assignment lingers.
Director: Robert Duvall
Starring: Robert Duvall, Ruben Blades, Luciana Pedraza, Kathy Baker, Julio Oscar Mechoso
Acting doesn't get more personal, or much greater.
A wonderfully eccentric piece of filmmaking -- to demand it cohere to formula would be to miss the point.
The movie is not quite successful. It is too secretive about its heart.
There isn't any kind of dance you can compare to Robert Duvall's latest as an actor/director, though a slo-mo minuet might come close.
If Mr. Duvall's finely textured performance is a testament to the power of good screen acting to lift a film above the mundane, the movie's many irritating tics demonstrate that he is much more at home in front of the camera than behind it.
Robert Duvall
Deauville Film Festival (2003)
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