User Reviews

The Merry Gentleman is one of the most patient and subtle American films I've seen in some time. It involves two characters who will meet, who both have secrets, and who are both alone. We know their secrets. We know their predicaments. This film is not about plot, suspense, mystery, but about two people and their relationship.

Frank Logan is a hit man. No film that I can instantly recall has told such a subtle and human story about man of that occupation and it has been covered extensively. We have our hit man comedies, we have our hit man dramas, we have our hit man action, we have our hit man at a crossroads stories, we have our idiot hit men, we have our desperate hit man stories. The list is so substantial that making a film about a hired hand is almost one of the least original stories that could exist. Merry Gentleman seems to have contradicted that claim though, but it does so by not making it the centerpiece of the film. We see Frank Logan kill. We know Frank Logan kills others during the film. However, he could just as easily not be a hit man. In this film his being a hired killer is only a device to meet the character Kate. That we don't look at him as a hired killer, don't think of him like that, is the genius of him happening to be one.

Kate Frazier starts the film leaving her husband. She was beaten. Again, this is a familiar situation in films. We have our full gamut of battered wives films. Kate's story, like Frank's, is not about being a battered wife. Again, it's just a reason for her to leave, to find a new job, a job that when leaving she'll see Frank, standing on the ledge of the building across the street. She yells and startles him to stop him from jumping. He falls backwards. Of course, Frank was on that roof to shoot a man that worked in the same building as Kate. Frank and Kate actually meet when he helps her bring her Christmas tree into her apartment building – a scene that may have been a little forced. Again, Frank is there attending to business and again he encounters Kate. From this point on a friendship is formed.

That the film keeps their relationship a friendship is admirable. They both just need a friend. Their lives are complicated enough, although that doesn't stop most films from adding a romantic line when it makes no sense. Kate, naturally doesn't know that Frank was the one on that building, what he was doing there, and why he was really showing up at her apartment. And Frank knows nothing of Kate's reasons for her sudden relocation. Why are so they good for each other if they don't really know each other? The film leaves that open to interpretation. Where does the film go? Well, that can't be explained but it comes to a head when Kate's husband shows up.

What is so enjoyable about the film is having way more knowledge than the two characters. We know the secrets of both sides and Keaton lets the film play out so patiently that the film is enthralling. It has its humor, it has a bit of twists, but the film is all about the nuanced friendship that grows between two people and where that inevitably has to lead. We know where this film has to go – the characters have to figure out what we know. Don't they? And when they do what will happen? These are the questions that Keaton allows a very moody atmosphere to hide in the back of our heads while he tells and portrays half of the Frank and Kate friendship.

It's always interesting when a long-time actor directs their first picture. For Michael Keaton, who went from decent 80s comedies, to being Tim Burton's go-to guy for a stretch, to a string of mid-90s romantic dramas and comedies, and spending the last ten years appearing sporadically primarily in kids movies, it was hard to know what to expect. It's safe to say that Keaton was never in a film reminiscent of The Merry Gentleman. For an actor that does have a good amount of range but has always been a little spastic and energetic, his performance was impressively understated and well played. His acting mimics the patience and mood of his filming, everything is allowed to happen in its own time.

The film makes a point of showing Kate as looking like an angel when Frank looks down at her from the rooftop. Frank regards her as a gift when he finds her trapped under her own Christmas tree. Kate makes a comment halfway through the film that their isn't much difference between a ghost and an angel, one guides you and one haunts you but they both need something. It isn't clear if Frank and Kate are angels and ghosts to each other, but certainly they came into each other lives as we expect angels and ghosts do. We fear they'll have to leave each other just as a ghost and angel would as well. In the film, we'll question whether these characters are real at all, and what does it means if they're not. The ending of this film is as bittersweet as a story about ghost and angels would be. This is a film of sacrifice and of two people being gifts for one another and also of having to be ghosts and angels for each other too.

B+ (67.5) @ A Reel Perspective

Kelly MacDonald has that quality about her that pulls the male ego into wanting to protect her. I felt it in "The Girl in the Cafe," and I'll never forgive Javier Bardem for keeping his vow in "No Country for Old Men." "The Merry Gentleman" could be titled "Who will Protect Kelly?" Will it be the cop, the hit-man (Keaton) even her "born-again" husband?-they all want to protect her. Her husband is insane, and the cop offends her every time he speaks. Cold-blooded murderer Logan (Keaton), seems to win her heart with coughs, wheezing and repeating twice "I found a girl under a Xmas tree." Keaton's minimalist dialog even has him wheezing for her to quit talking and leave the hospital. If he charms her with any more silver-tongued devilry than that, it must have been edited out. I thought the ending worked; the part that was missing was 'What did she see in him?'

Fleeing an abusive relationship Kate Frazier heads to Chicago and gets a job as a receptionist; one day as she leaves work she looks up at the falling snow and sees a man, Frank Logan, standing on a rooftop about to jump; she screams and he falls backwards onto the roof. When the police arrive there is no sign of the man so she goes home feeling good about saving a life. It is only later that she learns he was a killer who had shot a man moments before! She meets the man again when he helps her with her Christmas tree although she has no idea who he is. They gradually become friends although the police haven't lost interest in Kate; mostly because one of the officers is hoping for a less then professional relationship with her. When Kate's husband returns claiming to have found God she is scared and tells the police but it is Frank who 'deals' with him… it is only a matter of time before she discovers the truth about him and when she does will she be safe?

The packaging for this suggests a thriller with a fair amount of action; in fact we only see Frank kill two people and those are in early scenes designed to show his character rather than to be exciting. There are no chases, shootouts or explosions and the small number of deaths that occur later are off-screen; we just see them as they are found. This is far more a character study as we get to know Kate and Frank as they in turn get to know each other and their secrets. Kelly Macdonald is delightful as Kate; nicely capturing her character's nervousness. Michael Keaton is equally good as Frank the suicidal hit man… he also does a fine job directing; I wouldn't have guessed this was his first film in that role. Despite the title this is not exactly a merry film although there are a few gentle laughs to be had. Overall a good film for those who don't need lots of action and don't need to see everything wrapped up neatly at the end.

"A stunning surprise" and a "Masterpeice"? More like "Mediocre"! It was slow paced but I give it credit that it wasn't your ordinary Hollywood movie that would've had the characters jumping into bed, or massive explosions to buildings and cars.

The ending was the worst. Having Michael Keaton's character just walk off into the sunset left too many questions unanswered, which I hate in a movie that takes the cheap way out. What happened with Kate? Did she and Detective Murcheson finally sit down for a complete dinner? Did Detective Murcheson gather enough evidence to have a warrant issued for Frank Logan? Guess I'm glad we only spend 99 cents on this, purchasing the movie from a Blockbuster going out of business sale.

There is a lot of irony to the title "The Merry Gentleman" about a hit man named Frank Logan. It is also curious to think of this film as a "thriller." Instead, it is an insightful character study of two people who are apparently deeply in love but cannot connect, due to extenuating circumstances.

Those circumstances have to do with the suicidal nature of the hitman Frank Logan. Michael Keaton is terrific as the self-loathing tailor by day and contract killer by night. Frank is "saved" by Kate (Kelly Macdonald) when he is about to jump off a building. There is no doubt that from Frank's perspective, Kate is his guardian angel.

The romance is disrupted by an extremely efficient police detective, who pieces together the story of Kate "saving" Frank. In a flagrant violation of protocol, the detective has a romantic interest in Kate, and he shamelessly flirts and invites her on dates. The naïve Kate has to be wondering what is happening to her, especially as she has recently fled from an abusive man. When she says that she must ask God for forgiveness, Frank has to remind her that she hasn't done anything wrong.

Some viewers may be disappointed in the relative absence of "action" in this film. But it is clear that the intent was that of insightful character development, not fast-paced action. Some of the best scenes are the quiet ones, such as the initial meeting of Kate and Frank when she has fallen under the weight of the large Christmas tree she has purchased; a conversation in the hospital where Frank is recovering from pneumonia; and a meeting in church where neither character looks at the other for the entire sequence.

The film's ending failed to resolve basic questions about the main relationship of Frank and Kate. It also failed to answer a myriad of questions that the viewer wants answered. This was obviously intentional on the part of the screenwriter. But it was the only shortcoming this thoughtful and well-produced film. The screenplay was filled with interesting details about the characters, which makes "The Merry Gentleman" a film worth viewing on multiple occasions.

As the movie opens we see a brief scene of a man and woman in the bedroom, and it is clear that he has some anger issues, and at least this time, probably not the first, he has hit her. Then we see her packing some things and leaving. He will eventually track her down, after a long time, and this plays into the overall thrust of the story.

Kelly Macdonald is the young woman, Kate Frazier. She starts a new life, a new job, and a new small apartment. Seems everyone asks about where she got the black eye, and each explanation is different.

It is nearing Christmastime, and as she exits work one evening looks up at the snow and sees a man standing on the edge of the top of the building across the street. Frightened for him she yells, and he jumps to safety on the roof. She doesn't think too much of it until the police come to talk to her, someone in her building had been shot about that time (we actually see the hit, he called the man's phone to get him at the right place for a clean shot) and they suspected it might have been the same man she saw (it was).

Michael Keaton is Frank Logan, who works as a tailor in an upscale shop, but his main occupation is contract hit man. He had seen Kate that night through his rifle scope, perhaps was touched that she called to him, and unknown to her he looked her up. They actually met when she had fallen at the entrance to her building and was trapped under her too-big Christmas tree. He helped her and soon they became good friends. His skill serves well when Kate's abusive husband finally tracks her down.

This isn't a very savory topic, but overall Keaton and Macdonald make this a drama a cut above most. The police suspect, and tell her, but she never finds out for sure who he is, and then he disappears.