**½/****
starring Robert Duvall, Rubén Blades, Frank Gio, Katherine Micheaux Miller
written and directed by Robert Duvall
by Bill Chambers As dawdling and peculiar as Robert Duvall's previous directorial outing, The Apostle, Assassination Tango has many checks in its 'pro' column, not the least of which a lead performance from writer-director Duvall that finds common ground between his character's two modes: volatile sociopath and lovestruck romantic. Duvall plays John J., a ponytailed hitman sent to Buenos Aires on a high-stakes job for his potential to camouflage with the locals. Once settled in, he discovers he can't carry out his execution for another three months but must remain in the country, and so he takes up the tango–moreover, he takes up a flirtation with prominent tango dancer Manuela (Luciana Pedraza), increasingly perplexed the closer they get that this pretty lady half his age even gives him the time of day. Produced by Francis Ford Coppola, the film evokes The Godfather's Sicily section in John J.'s gradual assimilation into the local colour, and one is reminded of Gordon Willis's shadowy lighting scheme for the Corleones in a kitchen scene featuring John J. and his Argentinean hosts. Assassination Tango sheds its pretense of genre as it progresses, which is exciting to witness when we get to a blatantly improvised first date between Duvall and Pedraza at a café but not so much thereafter; the picture's loss of momentum presents too much opportunity to contemplate that very thing. PROGRAM: SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
