Wild Target



“My name is Victor Maynard, and I am 54 years old and I work as a professional killer.”

            If you live in the US you may not have heard of Wild Target unless you are a big fan of Rupert Grint or Emily Blunt. I was in England last summer and all I saw on the side of buses was posters and advertisements for this movie. I like Emily Blunt and Rupert Grint so I had to see this somehow.  

            The story is mainly about a professional assassin named Victor Maynard. He is a very well known assassin who no one knows what he looks like. Victor comes from a family of assassins. He mother is always on him for his kills and telling him to stay focused.

            Victor gets called for a new assignment: he is to kill a sexy, free spirited con artist named Rose. She has pissed off a man named Ferguson by switching out a Rembrandt painting with a fake. Victor starts following Rose but she knows she is being watched and eventually gets away from him and he says to himself that she is out of control. He comes across her again but this time he actually saves her instead of killing her. Since he did not kill Rose when he had the chance Ferguson sends his body guards to kill her instead. Victor shoots the man who is about to kill Rose. There is another of Ferguson’s men, he has the assassin and the con artist cornered but a kid named Tony comes out of nowhere and shoots the body guard in the shoulder. He lies to both Tony and Rose telling them that he is an undercover detective. He takes an immediate liking to Tony and tells the young man he can be trained to be a “detective.”  

            All three manage to get away. Victor takes Rose and Tony to his house where they will be safe. The three become very close.

            In the mean time Ferguson has hired an assassin who is supposed to be matched with Victor. His name is Hector Dickson and he is all too eager to kill his competitor.

            Emily Blunt, Rupert Grint, and Bill Nighy are excellent together. Blunt is so good as Rose she really makes the movie. Her best scene is when we are first introduced to Rose: we see her literally riding her bike across Trafalgar Square not giving a crap about the traffic lights or cars. She then rides her bike across the front of the National Gallery where there is a sign that says no bikes allowed. She lights firecrackers to distract the museum guards and then proceeds to ride her bike THROUGH the museum itself!!! Rose is a very good character I liked her craziness and boldness. Blunt does an excellent job she is one of the only actresses around today who is truly talented in any film she makes. Grint is a panic. From the moment we see him he is a paranoid mess but he is a lovable character. Tony and Rose are always going at it in a brother/sister kind of way that is really cute. Nighy I have never seen in a film before but I liked him he was really good as Victor. Right from the beginning even though he was supposed to be this ruthless killer he still had a heart to him.

            Martin Freeman from the British version of The Office was Hector Dickson. He was really clean cut and put together that he looked really creepy. I found it funny that he played Tim in The Office Jim in the Us Office is based off of and Emily Blunt is married to John Krasinski who plays Jim. Little six degrees of The Office separation going on.

            Wild Target is really funny and very entertaining. I liked the plot of assassins and con- artists. I believe Wild Target is now available on DVD in the US. If you want to see something different than the typical crappy love stories and assassin stories I highly recommend watching this movie.