The Assignment Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		1.5

The Assignment Blu-ray Movie Review

A Hill too far.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 6, 2017

Say what you will about The Assignment (and some cynics may aver that the less said about this weird film, the better), it at least offers one of the more intentionally provocative premises in recent (or maybe more than recent) movie history. Director Walter Hill, who also co-wrote this frankly bizarre effort, is a cult favorite for any number of films, including well remembered outings like Hard Times, Southern Comfort and 48 Hrs., and Hill often invests more or less traditional action adventure entries with sometimes rather unexpected and even anarchic elements. That’s certainly the case with The Assignment, which kind of plays like John Wick, that is, if Mr. Wick had undergone some gender reassignment surgery and emerged as Jane Wick. Some diehard film fans may remember the frankly pretty forgettable 1964 Vincente Minnelli opus Goodbye Charlie, wherein Debbie Reynolds played a ne’er-do- well (male) reincarnated as a woman, and there’s something at least somewhat similar about The Assignment’s presentation of a hitman named Frank (Michelle Rodriguez, Lost), who is unwillingly transformed into a woman by a doctor named Rachel Jane (Sigourney Weaver) who has her own scores to settle. It’s an obviously “WTF” concept, and one which might seem to play to what are Hill’s occasional gonzo proclivities which often celebrate a certain B movie ethos, but the film, also kind of like Goodbye, Charlie, simply comes off as overly forced and even somewhat smarmy at times.

The fact that Sigourney Weaver is ultimately shown to be stylishly attired in a strait jacket in scenes that begin The Assignment and recur regularly as interstitial features may be most easily understood as the requirements of her obviously deranged character, but may still invite cynical assessments that the actress herself needed to be restrained after figuring out what exactly she had gotten herself into when she agreed to make the film. Interestingly, some background information online about the film’s long genesis suggests that the only way Hill was able to guarantee even the apparently minimal funding he got for The Assignment was his promise to recruit bankable stars. Again, cynics may question if Weaver herself provides that marquee value, but some may feel that Michelle Rodriguez might be even less of a sure fire draw.

Rodriguez’s often glowering presence has been an energy jolt to previous outings on both the small and large screens even if her actual performing chops sometimes seem to be limited to her omnipresent scowl, but she has an appropriate swagger as Frank, though the whole sex change angle comes off as near camp material at times. Hill wants to push various buttons, not just with the general premise (which is shocking enough), but with other pokings and proddings of societal norms by having Frank continue to have a relationship with a female despite his gender reassignment, not to mention an almost comically long glimpse at Frank's "anatomy" in an early scene (with Rodriguez either digitally "enhanced" or wearing one impressive prosthetic), one assumes in order to prove that the character actually started out male. Despite that bit of "wizardry", the film is perhaps fatally hobbled more by some really inadequate (facial) makeup choices for Rodriguez as a male which Hill attempts to hide through masked framings and the like, but which still come off as almost woefully inept.

Somewhat hilariously, I initially wrote my “deck” above (the subtitle under the film’s title) to say "I guess calling it 'The Re-assignment' would have been too on the nose", feeling that was pretty funny until I started researching the film and found out it was indeed initially marketed under the title (Re)Assignment. That shows more of a sense of self deprecatory humor than the film itself ever does, and that’s probably one of the other fatal flaws The Assignment makes. It’s almost deadly serious most of the time, when both its setup and its execution (no pun intended, given the accruing body count) seem (as noted above) as bordering on camp quite a bit of the time. Hill’s had his misfires before in his long and kind of odd career, but The Assignment certainly qualifies as one of his more questionable decisions.

The Assignment Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Assignment is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The closing credits feature the Arri logo, and so I'm assuming this was captured with one of the Alexa models. The results are often quite interesting, since Hill, whatever budget deficits he was working with, invests the film with some stylistic flourishes, including sequences in black and white, more traditional grading in both yellows and blues, as well as some whimsical interstitial illustrations that resemble graphic novel frames (Hill brought out a graphic novel version of this tale overseas). Perhaps unexpectedly, some of the best fine detail is noticeable in the black and white sequences, as with the fine detail on the muslin bandages wrapped around poor old Frank's face in his post op phase. In terms of the color sequences (which are far and away the most numerous), detail levels are probably strongest in the coolly lit, blue tinged atmosphere of the psychiatric prison where Dr. Jane is being interrogated. A lot of the Frank material plays out in dusky yellows, and detail levels are often less appealing here (one almost assumes Hill did some of this on purpose, especially the scenes with Rodriguez as a male, to help cover makeup issues).

The Assignment Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Assignment has its fair share of gunfire, and it's in many of the kill scenes that the disc's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track sputters to life with good surround activity and some decent LFE. The film has a lot of expository material, though, including long two handers with Jane and the doctor questioning her (a largely wasted Tony Shalhoub), and as such, the 5.1 track tends to offer more center based activity with occasional ambient environmental sounds dotting the side and rear channels. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly on this problem free track.

The Assignment Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Filmmaking Portraits (1080p; 2:12) is a slide show of stills.

The Assignment Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Years ago when I was a little boy I somehow stumbled on the paperback version of the autobiography of Christine Jorgensen, which for some reason my mother had tucked away on one of her bookshelves. As soon as she saw I was leafing through it, my Mom literally ripped it out of my hands and said, "That is not a book for a little boy to be reading!" (The whole escapade strikes me as kind of funny now, since while it was obvious my Mom was trying to "protect" me, all she did was pique my interest in whomever Christine Jorgensen was, leading me to do some "outside" investigating at the local library in those pre-internet days, which in turn led me to a "they did what to this person?" moment.) I kind of wish my Mom had still been around to yank this Blu-ray disc out of my player, with an admonishment that this was not a film for anyone with any sense to be watching. Hill has a fascinating premise, but it's one that's perhaps unworkable as a film. Technical merits are very good to excellent for those considering a purchase.