Unlike Michael Fassbender’s methodical and fastidious and utterly joyless hit man in “The Killer,” Pierce Brosnan’s fixer and hitman in “Fast Charlie” has a wry sense of humor as he goes about his bloody business and displays a real affinity for the pleasures of life. Charlie’s a gourmet cook who specializes in Italian food (he was stationed as a Marine in Italy) and he dreams of retiring someday soon to a fixer-upper in Tuscany.
Problem is, when we meet Charlie, he’s standing in the middle of a junkyard as a gunman commands him to take off his shirt and drop his pants. This looks like the end for Charlie. Or is it? You tell me.
“Fast Charlie” is a brisk and darkly funny take on the Existential Hit Man genre, with Brosnan turning in one of his signature cool and economically effective performances and the veteran and accomplished director Phillip Noyce (“Dead Calm,” “Patriot Games,” “Salt”) proving he’s still a commanding and sure-handed force behind the camera. Based on the 2001 novel “Gun Monkeys” by Victor Gischler and adapted in sharp fashion by Richard Wenk, this is a slick and violent piece of pulp entertainment, with Brosnan’s Charlie Swift providing the irony-laced narration as the title character.
After the time-honored “Begin with the Ending” scene, we flashback to the string of events that placed Charlie in that predicament. For the last 30+ years, Charlie has been working for the crime boss Stan Mullen (James Caan), who is now semi-retired and experiencing early signs of dementia. When Charlie isn’t carrying out hits (or mentoring a younger killer who’s quite the idiot), he’s cooking up tasty dishes in his tastefully appointed home in Biloxi or visiting with his old pal Stan, making sure Stan’s OK.
It’s about as stable and comfortable as life can be for an aging fixer, but Charlie’s world is flipped upside down when a rival mobster named Beggar Mercado (Gbenda Akinnagbe) moves to take over Stan’s territory by having his henchmen gun down most of Stan’s crew. Charlie enlists the help of Marcie Kramer (Morena Baccarin), the ex-wife of a recently whacked low-level mobster who had the goods on Beggar, to travel with Charlie to New Orleans in a quest for the incriminating evidence that can take down Beggar.
About this Marcie, she’s really something. Living in a house on stilts, Marcie works as a taxidermist, crafting animals in a way that they’ll haunt the people who killed them. Quirky! She’s also smart, beautiful and clearly wary of establishing any type of human connection, though from the moment Charlie meets her, the chemistry is obvious. Brosnan and Baccarin are electric together, as Marcie quickly establishes herself as someone who has been victimized in life but doesn’t play the victim. Marcie is fantastic. Charlie would be lucky to have her accompany him to Tuscany, if the two of them avoid getting shot.
“Fast Charlie” also marks the final performance of James Caan, who died in July of 2022. Caan is notably frail in appearance, but he gives a forceful, funny, warm and strong performance in one last tough-guy role. Brosnan is a graceful and generous screen partner. Seeing these two veterans effortlessly nailing their scenes is the best thing about this movie.
