Quoth a user comment of the IMDb: “If you go, expect punch lines and sight gags regarding all types of sex, killing, religion, sports, business and anything else you might deem politically incorrect.” Which makes it sound like the Farrelly Brothers do Leon. Which it isn’t. In fact, I think that the commentator (who’s featured on the IMDb’s page for the film) did in fact see a different film, (probably the Farrelly Brother’s remake of Leon, which will likely be released as a sign of some coming apocalypse.)

The Matador is funny. But it’s funny because it’s superbly well observed, and because the plotting is perfectly down the line—just twisted round slightly. It is not a laugh-a-minute, but then these aren’t cheap laughs you’re getting. There are no sight gags per se, though there are funny shots; there aren’t really punch lines because there aren’t jokes—just a funny premise and cracking, crackling dialogue.

It is a very, very good film. Tightly plotted, funny, surprising, appalling, well-acted.

Lemme see, there are a managable number of actors (3), so…

Pierce Brosnen.

Wierd accent, but my, my what a lovely performance. They say that this film is Pierce putting Bond behind him, but it’s more like him kneeing Bond in the balls before he leaves. Julian Noble (Brosnen) is a secret agent too, in a way, and he, too, has a licence to kill. It’s just that Noble works in the private sector, not for MI5, he’s a fuck-up, and he tells better jokes than 007. While Bond grows more superhuman with every film, this Noble is believably erratic and morally ambivalent, and entertaining. (Who really cares about Bond any more? You know he’s going to shag the girl and save the world.)

Greg Kinnear.

(How come I always think of Roy Kinnear?) The Americans don’t have class (they have race instead), but The Matador is basically a class comedy. Danny Wright (Kinnear) is middle-class and suburban, and a wonderfully unselfconscious foil to the diamond-in-the-very-rough, Noble. Kinnear’s performance is nicely observed and mostly unindulgent. He plays the fish out of water without flapping about and gurning, which is always to be commended.

Hope Davis

(I thought she was Lisa Cudrow to begin with. Similar looks, similar mannarisms, similar voice.) Again, nicely played, unselfconscious, perfect. And very funny in that hiding-behind-your-hand-because-you’re-worried-someone-is-about-to-make-a-fool-of-themselves kind-of-a-way. (No, she’s not like Phoebe from Friends, more like your mum.)

Go see this film. It will make you really sympathise with a remorseless killer. (How often does that happen at the movies? (Leon excepted.)) It will show you beautiful places (Mexico City, particularly). In fact, it will do what movies do at their best, which is to show you strange people in unfamiliar circumstances, and expect you to relate to them, laugh at them, and to care, ultimately, about what happens to them.