Jonathan Lynn is known in the UK largely for being a co-creator of the classic British TV series Yes, Minister, and in Hollywood for having directed Clue and My Cousin Vinny. Wild Target is a British-set broad comedy that’s right up Lynn’s alley, where a repressed assassin (Bill Nighy), who is in Nighy’s own words, “paralyzed by anality”, falls in love with a kleptomaniac con artist played by a terribly vivacious Emily Blunt. With support from Rupert “Ron Weasley” Grint, Martin Freeman sporting crazy false teeth and a hilarious turn from Rupert Everett, the movie’s first act is a solid farce punctuated by a great car chase through London. But it can’t sustain that energy, unfortunately, and the ending disappoints with predictable sentiment and implausible romance.
This article appears in Sep 29 – Oct 5, 2011.