Confessions Of A Hit Man

Bruno Serrano (James Remar), an enforcer and hitman for the LA mob, is instructed by his kingpin Uncle Dino to deliver a routine transshipment of several million dollars. Bruno executes his unwitting accomplice and flees with the cash, commandeering a stretch limo and ordering its chauffeur, Charley (Michael Wright), to head for Vegas. A quick call to his doctor from a roadside payphone spells out Bruno's metaphysical dilemma: his debilitating headaches have just been diagnosed as symptoms of a terminal disease. As an act of contrition, Bruno places a call to the brother of the one victim in his long career who he believes was fingered unfairly, only to be ridiculed for an inappropriate display of sympathy. His occupational paranoia now exacerbated by large doses of medication, he soon has it out with Charley, whom he suspects of some sort of imminent betrayal. Later, they take on a runaway ingenue, Corine (Emily Longstreth), and the three of them pursue a series of road-movie adventures. They stop at a small mission, where Bruno angles for absolution from a Spanish priest. They pull into a mom-and-pop casino on the edge of the desert, where Bruno challenges the widow proprietor to a top-dollar, one-time-only cut for high card, winner take all. At every opportunity, Bruno arbitrarily dispenses great wads of cash.

In Vegas, Bruno treats his improvised family to a flashy wardrobe and class accommodations, then pays a visit to the family friend who has always looked out for him, ever since the death of his father. Here a mysterious flashback that we've witnessed throughout--Bruno's father (Richard Caruso) shouting in a doorway, furtively observed by Bruno as a young child--is clarified. Bruno's father was murdered in a contract hit ordered by Uncle Dino and carried out by the family friend. Bruno performs his last execution, avenging his father's death. Finally, as Dino and his henchmen close in, Bruno turns over the remaining currency to Charley and Corine, sends them up to the roof of the casino, and orders them to dump it into the sea of gamblers below.

Much of the governing imagery here is straightforwardly Catholic, as Bruno begs absolution in the midst of a hostile and sinful world, fully aware of his own complicity in the corruption that surrounds him. This dynamic was presumably suggested by BAD LIEUTENANT, and, like Abel Ferrara's similarly portentous film, CONFESSIONS presses the issue of grace through the employment of a largely unsympathetic protagonist--James Remar, most familiar as the stock heavy from 48 HRS. and countless others. Yet with its overbearing rock score, hipster nihilism, and high-speed road-based narrative, it more closely resembles VANISHING POINT, another existential touchstone from the cinematic past. With a bit more of VANISHING POINT's visual dynamism and loopy sense of conviction, this might have achieved cult status as a pop theodicy. (Violence, adult situations, substance abuse, profanity.) leave a comment