The Virtuoso Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.5

The Virtuoso Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 10, 2021

Anthony Hopkins was kind of infamously in absentia for the Academy Awards broadcast a few weeks ago, which, among other kind of odd decisions, decided to wrap up the event with the Best Actor announcement (which went to Hopkins for The Father) instead of Best Picture, since it was obviously assumed the late Chadwick Boseman would take home the honors, and a posthumous celebration would be an appropriate high note on which to end things. As they say, the best laid plans of mice and men, . . .etc. Despite getting above the title billing, Hopkins is largely in absentia in The Virtuoso as well, turning in a kind of weirdly mannered performance that looks like it easily could have been shot over the course of one day, giving Hopkins a little spare change in his pocket without any huge time commitment. The Virtuoso itself is overly mannered, with characters who are never officially given names (for the most part), and instead are identified by titles, as in the case of the Virtuoso (Anson Mount, Hell on Wheels: The Complete Series ), a professional hitman, or his boss, the Mentor (the aforementioned Anthony Hopkins). The Virtuoso (the character, not the film) offers a window into his mind courtesy of near nonstop narration, wherein he discloses the need for a calm, professional attitude when one is murdering someone else for hire. Even the character’s voiceover is a study in overly arch monologues, but that element pales in comparison to Hopkins’ “big scene”, a totally gonzo sequence in a cemetery where he regales the Virtuoso with stories about the Vietnam War, where he supposedly fought alongside the Virtuoso’s father (and participated in what sounds like another My Lai-esque massacre). This scene features Hopkins chewing through the word “yeah” repeatedly (as in repeatedly), as if he’s doing his own version of Billy Crystal doing his own version of Edward G. Robinson in The Ten Commandments.

There are a number of glaring illogicalities in The Virtuoso, the first of which might be the disconnect between the fact that the Virtuoso goes to some lengths describing how carefully he's made himself anonymous and how he has instituted a labyrinthine maze for prospective clients to reach him in order to preserve that very anonymity, and yet it's shown almost immediately that he seems to be working exclusively for the Mentor, who (as described above), not only knows him, but knew his father, and has the Virtuoso's phone number as well, as is documented recurrently throughout the film (to say that Hopkins is "phoning it in" would be a more than apt description in more ways than one, since he spends so much of the film talking to the Virtuoso on his cellphone).

One of the other weird conceits of the story is that the Virtuoso is never told outright whom he's supposed to kill, and is instead sent on a kind of scavenger hunt with various clues, many of which are more than arcane, but which of course the Virtuoso has no problem deciphering. However, the bulk of the film is given over to the Virtuoso's hunt for someone or something called White Rivers, which will supposedly lead him to his next target. This particular hit comes after a somewhat botched job where an innocent bystander has been killed (rather gruesomely), something which has sent the Virtuoso into an emotional tailspin, and additionally something that even the Mentor's mantra of "yeah" can't dispel.

A kind of ridiculous sidebar featuring a stray dog seems designed to prove that there's some semblance of honest human emotion still residing in the cool and calculating (if roiled) Virtuoso, but once the Virtuoso travels to a remote enclave and starts hanging out at the local diner to try to divine who his victim is, he's all business, with the potential exception of his growing attraction to the diner's waitress, whose nametag says Dixy (Abbie Cornish), even if her official role title is, yep, The Waitress. There are a number of potential subjects in the diner whom the Virtuoso thinks may be his target, including The Loner (Eddie Marsan), The Deputy (David Morse), a character with an actual name, Handsome Johnnie (Richard Brake), and a girl (Diora Baird) whom the Virtuoso assumes is Handsome Johnnie's girlfriend.

The Virtuoso aims to be an action thriller building to a supposedly mind blowing twist, and yet I'd personally be surprised if any armchair sleuths don't see at least part of the denouement coming from virtually the moment the Virtuoso shows up at the diner. There are (again) so many lapses in logic that any visceral elements in the story are pretty much jettisoned by the increasingly preposterous plot, and all I'll say in that regard, is some police force is going to have a pretty major investigation on their hands when they discover that virtually everyone in this tiny burg has ended up dead. In fact, I almost wish The Virtuoso would have been played with the same kind of sly wink that informs, say, Blood Simple, since the accruing body count suggests that while the Virtuoso may indeed be good at killing, he has a problem selecting the right victim.

In that regard, the whole underlying supposed "surprise" that is doled out in an unintentionally hilarious "Moishe the Explainer" moment late in the film is frankly gobsmacking enough (and not in a good way) to make absolutely everything that happens in the film unnecessary. Without revealing too much, suffice it to say that if you were a hired assassin (even a secret one), wouldn't you take out your prey immediately if you knew who it was, especially if there were a little competition for the job?

The Virtuoso Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Virtuoso is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. This is a generally decent if uninspiring looking transfer that offers generally good detail levels, even in some extreme lighting and/or grading choices, as in some of the almost sickly yellow material in the diner or some ice cold blue scenes featuring the Virtuoso taking out various targets. A few warmer, more natural, looking scenes help give the palette a bit of normal looking color, as in the patently gonzo sequence featuring Hopkins at the cemetery. There are some issues with noise in some of the low light material, but since Lionsgate has granted this transfer more than enough real estate, my hunch is at least some of what's on display is source related.

The Virtuoso Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Virtuoso features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that just doesn't have a whale of a lot of opportunity to offer showy surround effects. First of all, there's the omnipresent, and often pretty pretentious sounding, narration courtesy of the Virtuoso (and briefly the Waitress). There are some decent immersive moments, including a few brief scenes outside of the Virtuoso's supposedly remote cabin (which another character has absolutely no problem finding, in just another of this film's inconsistencies), but a lot of the film takes place in the relatively cloistered environment of either the diner or various hotel bedrooms, and as such surround activity can be subtle. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English, English SDH and Spanish subtitles are available.

The Virtuoso Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary with Director Nick Stagliano

The Virtuoso Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's another niggling question that some may have if they make it through to the end of The Virtuoso , and again without revealing too much (but with a proviso that spoiler-phobes may want to avert their eyes), if you were a, say, mentor to a group of assassins, would you send all of them, or at least most of them, on the same mission, since they all live by a "kill or be killed" code? Also, just as a kind of observer (for better or worse) of orthography, can I just say that "Dixy" looks wrong to me? The Virtuoso is too predictable by half, and it's also way too serious for its own good, and might have been a good deal more enjoyable as a black comedy. Technical merits are generally solid for those who are considering a purchase.