Assassination Tango

Plot synopsis:
John J. is a New York City hitman aging into retirement, with a loving 40-something girlfriend who has a young daughter that he dotes on. He keeps his gangster life a secret from both of them.One night he stabs a man in line at a club and swiftly gets away with the murder. Not long after, he goes to his boss for another assignment, which will take him to Buenos Aries.After arriving in Argentina, he meets with the men who have arranged the hit, and he begins to work on the plan for murdering a corrupt general. Despite his insistence that the job be done in less than three days, the plan gets extended for a few weeks.With so much time to wander around, John becomes captivated by tango dancers at local clubs, particularly one ravishing girl named Manuela. He asks her to teach him the tango, yet she is reluctant, and encourages her sister to help him.John and Manuela have a candid conversation over coffee. She admits she is single with a 2-year-old daughter. He says he is essentially married to his girlfriend, but he has been with other women. He doubts that he would "have a chance" with her since he is so old, but she says that indeed he does.Over time, John and Manuela go out dancing and he learns more of the tango as he continues to prepare for his hit job. One evening he enjoys a nice dinner with Manuela and some of her family.John has grown to distrust the men who have set up the hit, so he pulls off the murder sooner than expected, and evades capture by both the gangsters and the police. He had agreed to meet Manuela and her daughter at a park, but he gets caught up in trying to escape the country.On the plane back to the U.S., John fantasizes of dancing the tango with Manuela.Having returned to NYC, John reunites with his girlfriend and her daughter. He later shows the little girl some tango moves.In a coda tacked on to roll under the closing credits, Manuela says in voiceover that she has provided John with a video of new tango lessons that she hopes he will enjoy.

Tags: murder

Review:
Two viewings within a year has not changed my opinion.This movie is just different, a unique portrait of strange older hit-man and the people in his life.
I am not surprised a number of viewers did not like this film, even fans of Robert Duvall.
A pity that as of this review in October of 2005, this is still her only screen appearance.Between her and Duvall - who are both complex characters to say the least - along with some wonderfully-colorful cinematography, great dance scenes and intrigue about how an assassination plot will turn out, I found this film very pleasing.This is unknown film that isn't fully appreciated not only with the public but with the reviewers here..
In `Assassination Tango,' a film for which he provided both script and direction, Robert Duvall plays an aging professional killer who also happens to be a tango aficionado.
When he is sent to Buenos Aires to take out a disreputable retired general, John falls in love with both a lovely young dancer and the style of `genuine' tango dancing to which she introduces him.`Assassination Tango,' despite the unsavory elements of the story, is a quiet, muted film that is more about this strangely paradoxical character than it is about either assassination or tango.
The supporting performers are all good, but, ultimately, we are left wondering just what Duvall had in mind when he set about making this film.
Even the tango scenes are generally blasé and uninspiring, forcing us to wonder just what it is about this dance that both intoxicates John and leads one of the women in the film to say that the tango is `life, love, hate,' an encomium that certainly doesn't seem justified by the dance sequences in this film.`Assassination Tango' deserves to be seen for Duvall's performance and for the uniqueness of both its setting and its main character.
And I'm not sure I agree with other comments that Argentines have a big inferiority complex; I think it's more like a "confusion" complex, i.e., "Why don't these other people understand life the way I do?"The film also reminds me a bit of Apochalypse Now in that you just sort of have to watch it -- many times, perhaps -- and realize at the end you're just about as confused as you were when you first saw it, so if you're like me, you accept that, live with it, and are happy to hear any new interpretations that might come along.Finally, I believe that Argentina is not a comfortable place to live if you're not extremely familiarity with and experienced in living in paradox, confusion, and Isaiah Berlin's theory of "negative freedoms." Thank God, I love it.
There probably supposed to be some higher meaning to this movie to correlate the tango with the job of an assassin, but I missed it to be sure.
Its not like you won't understand what's going on while you watch the movie, but you may wonder what's the bigger picture to all the small interactions between the characters.With the exception of the main plot, featuring Robert Duvall, I don't feel like there was any closure on the sub-plots and the characters played by Ruben Blades, Luciana Pedraza, and some of the other assorted supporting characters.
Maybe a director's cut might shed some light on a lot of the questions I found myself asking about character motives and behaviors.This a movie that no one will fault you for missing and no one will look at you like you've got four heads if you go see it.
What remains is the well described atmosphere of Argentina, and the love of the character with tango dancing, and the beautiful Argentinian who introduces him to the secrets of tango.
I've read Robert Duvall loves to tango in real life, and his dancing in this is so graceful and talented.
The film makes me want to visit Argentina and see in person their beautiful dancing.
I can understand why Duvall, one of the premier actors of our times, can sit back and look at his body of work with supreme satisfaction, and be more than willing to try new things.
In a dual story about a aging hired killer and tango dancing, neither subject is developed to anything approaching interesting.Duvall, as usual stellar as an actor, has not given himself very good material here.
This is never explored, though, and we are left unmoved.Similarly, the sequences with tango dancing are also never fully utilized to their full effect, and Duvall, who is supposed to be the central character, is barely shown doing any dancing at all, and his suppressed love for his real-life girlfriend never catches fire.As a result, both plots are pretty much glossed over and what we end up with is two sub-plots, neither of which is satisfying.
This Duvall feature is quirky, touching, beautiful, odd, and by a man whose politics I do not at all like, yet I have to say that its qualities, including the camera work, the cutting, the music, the actors, the spoken script come close to creating a film Fellini would have been pleased to have authored.
His little, tightly wound but precise killer is, like the dance which carries the spirit of a place and people in the film, and the panther which his dance teacher admires, is a wary watchful beast whose devotion to the ten year old daughter redeems him in part.
Anderson (Robert Duvall) is an old man, who loves to dance, and lives with his beloved girlfriend and her daughter in Brooklyn.
The story is very boring and slow paced and Robert Duvall is completely miscast, being too old for the role of John J.
It is almost ridiculous to see the romantic scenes of the 71 years old Robert Duvall, with the beautiful and sexy 30 years old Luciana Pedraza, or acting like a dad of with his 10 years old stepdaughter.
"Assassination Tango" is completely overrated and I believe just for two reasons: the first one is because of the name of Robert Duvall, but he needs to look to Clint Eastwood and learn how to get old with dignity and glamour.
I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys watching a movie with great acting, nice music, and not the usual boring plot..
At once it seems like he is trying to draw a parallel between the passion of dance and the intricacies of crime, but he allows scenes to drag on too long without significant action or dialogue.I get the feeling that Duvall wanted to celebrate the tango in its natural habitat without indulging in the erotic aspects of the dance, just as he wanted to portray a crotchety assassin in a foreign land without speaking of the relevant political context.
This film takes a little time to settle into because the assassination is more of a subplot in the movie.
Once this point sinks in, I really enjoy the film because the Argentinian tango dance scene is enthralling.
something many would never watch on their own, but now that you're there, you're drawn into the story.To me, the interesting thing about Duvall's character is that he is a hit-man who must disguise all of himself to others ( he even leads his benefactors to believe that he would carry out the hit at a specific time when in truth, he always has his own cautious agenda -- and he is correct not to trust anyone ).
But his next move is to be the ruthless hit-man.Admittedly, you're a little confused initially, but looking back on the film, you feel pretty good about most of it..
This film follows the well trodden path of an ageing hit-man (John J) sent on what may well be his last job in Argentina which also sets the backdrop for a second stand of the story: John J's love of Tango.
The script is flawed and the movie ends with lots unresolved.Robert Duvall stars, wrote, and directed this homage to the tango and Argentina.
There is a line in the movie that you are never too old to learn, I'm sure he interjected that because he discovered the Tango in his 60's and dances it to this day.
Odd little movie shot in Argentina about an American hit man sent to take our a general, only to find himself with time on his hands before he can take out the general and return home.
To kill time, he takes up the tango, and the movie is as much about this unusual development as the impending assassination.
This Robert Duvall directed film attempts to combine a crime thriller and a romance with the exotic charm of Argentina's national dance, the tango.
Duvall, acting wonderfully as usual, gives an interesting portrayal of an aging assassin with a gentle side and a love of life but his assignment seems to be a mere backdrop for highlighting the dance sequences.
While his co-star and dance partner, newcomer Luciana Pedraza, also gives a realistic, believable performance, the two fail to heat up the screen.While beautifully shot on the streets of Brooklyn and Buenos Aires and featuring a latin soundtrack, this film may be of interest only to dance lovers or Duvall fans..
I have been a Robert Duvall fan for many years now so when this movie showed up on my DVR I naturally watched it.
The beginning was pretty much what i expected but then the tango was introduced along with the beautiful dancing of Luciana Pedraza.
It was then that the movie made a turn and the wonderful tango dancing became the high point of the film.
Once again, Robert Duvall comes out of the gate with one of his personal projects, writing, directing, producing, and starring, and delivers an almost perfect film.
Assassination Tango is as good a film as I've ever seen..
The romantic interest between the tango dancer (his real-live girlfriend) and Duval's character was fun to watch; especially when the two were drinking coffee.
If there is a sequel....not........play up the romantic interest with the tango dancer and connect the plot dots.By the way...I saw Duval and his girlfriend costar get on a plane for the east coast a few years ago, she has a lot of natural beauty.Julius.
The key about playing the hired assassin Robert Duvall portrays in this film seems to be his newly found happiness in a relationship with Maggie and her young daughter.
In many ways the film suffers because it keeps us away from the main reason for his character's trip to that South American country.It is very interesting that when John, gets back to Brooklyn he goes to meet his young step daughter at the end of the school day and on the way home he tries to teach her a few steps of the tango.
He's professional, speaks some Spanish, but moreover has a fascination with Tango and other ballroom dance.Duvall has shown he can run a one man show before, with The Apostle, and while this film is entirely different, it's every bit as good.
If you appreciated the banter between characters and intense yet subdued violence from Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, you'll like this movie.Duvall is the brilliant veteran assassin who's not altogether pleasant all the time (this isn't the sweet nice guy Marky Mark assassin from The Big Hit), but you still wish him well.
Miller is his stepdaughter, the apple of his eye for whom he always shows his nice side, and Pedraza is the Tango student/teacher who seduces Duvall's character by her very nature in more ways than one.It's not a hot steamy thriller with over-the-top action sequences and acrobatic heroes like Assassins, nor a romantic comedy like Grosse Pointe Blank, just a movie that shows a man's dance with life and death and his fellow human beings in a very enjoyable way..
Robert Duvall's greatness lies in part, on his ability to become the character he's portraying, his identity subsumed in the film.
Actors tend to be empty vessels, filled by a writer's creation...Duvall mistook his acting gifts for writing talent, and produced an interesting glimpse of Buenos Aires' tango world, populated with the road show cast of "Reservoir Dogs".
A 30 year old woman who has charmed him, with whom he lives and loves and dances.She moves dance into his life and he film-making into hers.
I know that Duvall had been trying to develop a story around the tango for years.
Duvall fleshes out the latter in "Assassination Tango"; a sort of character study of a heartless killer with a sensitive side which is hard to swallow.
The camera work and the dancing is really superb.However: Duvall is way too much in love with himself.
This movie by Robert Duvall was fantastic, and moved me to actually sign up for tango lessons!
at first I did not like it as I was expected another "preacher" story (Duvall's first fantastic film he wrote as well).
The atmosphere and slightly unconventional plot coupled with superb acting, directing, and script "writing" has allowed me to watch the movie more then twice with no disappointment Mr. Duvall is at his finest and I wait to see his beautiful co-star in another production.
I especially enjoyed the impromptu scenes between Mr. Duvall and Miss Pedraza, to me, were worth seeing over and over, of course this might also be due to her great beauty.
I had thought Duvall's " Apostle" was going to be his last and best acting.Assassination Tango comes very close to being  almost as good.The movie moves along surprisingly quickly considering it's length and the many dance scenes.I have no interest in musicals nor in dancing but I found the tango dancing scenes interesting..There were some things that were never made clear to me.
in a movie that robert duvall wrote, directed, and starred in, he spends a lot of time chuckling with a smile on his face.
So when an actor (and occasional writer/director) with the stature of Robert Duvall gets a chance to do a movie on a topic clearly near and dear to his heart, in this case tango dancing, and feels that the audience "hook" he needs is to play a hit man and a "nice" (and aging) one at that, it's a little depressing.
(POSSIBLE SPOILER:  If you watch the film waiting to learn why the American Mafia is involved in a hit in Argentina, or why Duvall was chosen, or what happened "behind the scenes," don't bother.
There's a scene with Duvall sitting at a table with her, her sister, their mother and another guy just "talking shop" about the tango; it was pretty interesting in a watching-the-Discovery-channel sense until I remembered this was supposed to be a movie about a guy coming to kill someone.
Story is about John Anderson (Robert Duvall) who lives in New York and owns a line of beauty salons and dates a woman named Maggie (Kathy Baker) and adores her daughter Jenny (Katherine Micheaux Miller) but what they don't know about him is that he's also a professional assassin.
John has always loved the tango and one night he notices a young woman dancing a more complicated version of what he has seen and this fascinates him so he asks for lessons.
This film is directed and written by Robert Duvall and in his previous filmmaking efforts he has shown a tendency to allow his films to go on a bit long with scenes that could easily have been edited out to tighten the story but he does an excellent job of making sure that audiences understand his characters.
His character here is about control from the way he talks to people to his appreciation of a complicated dance like the tango.
This story does wander and meander back and forth between his being an assassin to his love of the tango and their are clearly scenes that could have been left out like the scene early in the film at the newstand with the cop.
Pedraza appears to be an actress of limited experience but her performance overcomes this with her natural grace and beauty and her dancing in the film is impressive and it's easy to understand why Duvall would be attracted to her.
This film is slow moving and drifts back and forth with mixed results but like "The Apostle" Duvall gives us a seriously flawed but interesting character that you cannot help but be drawn into..
Robert Duvall has turned in such interesting performances in films like "The Godfather," "M*A*S*H", and "True Grit" that "Assassination Tango" comes across as a disappointment.
(A few spoilers) A great performance from Robert Duvall helps lift Assassination Tango from good to the very good category.
Luciana Pedraza gives a very natural performance as Manuela, the tango dancer that Duvall develops a deep admiration for.
It could be that as a writer and director, Robert Duvall is a much better actor.
Maybe this could all be fixed with a re-write in which Robert Duvall plays the part of The Tango Assassin..
I was also not surprised to see that he wrote the Assassin's Tango, as well as directed it.Most of Duvall's later films are about real people and real-life situations and that is what makes them so interesting.
His love of tango gave the Duvall assassin an unusual depth of character that made him not only more interesting than your average assassin, but made him more human.
So, what makes this film ultimately pleasurable and interesting, is that Anderson starts to frequent dance halls where he eventually sees a dancer Manuela (Luciana Pedraza) and is instantly connected to her.
To see the various dancing by Professional Tango dancers in various places in the film-- Is just wonderful and a good side twist to the film, bringing your attention away from the fact that Anderson is quite probably trapped in Argentina and is being hunted.
Robert Duvall made two mistakes in making Assassination Tango.