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The Merry Gentleman Our rating: Your rating: 1 2 3 4 Your Comments: see all MPAA rating: R (for language and some violence) Genre: Drama Theater release: May 01, 2009 Directed by: Michael Keaton Runtime: 1 hour 50 minutes Cast: Michael Keaton (Frank), Kelly Macdonald (Kate), Tom Bastounes (Dave), Bobby Cannavale (Michael) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

When we first meet Kate (Kelly Macdonald), she is nursing a lavender shiner. It doesn't take us long to figure out that her abusive husband (Bobby Cannavale) is responsible, a cop sworn to serve and protect but who instead takes out his frustrations on his wife's face. Kate flees home and heads to Chicago to start a new life. While leaving work one night, she happens to glance up at the falling snow and catches sight of a man standing on the ledge of a building across the street, poised to jump. Luckily, Kate's scream scares him off the roof, an act her co-worker deems nothing less than a "Christmas miracle."

The man is Frank (Michael Keaton), a melancholy, contract killer of few words (it's half an hour in before we hear him speak). Business is booming and Frank is knocking off targets right and left, including one in Kate's building with a sniper rifle just moments before when she catches sight of him. But it isn't enough that Frank kills others—he wants to kill himself as well. And he very well may have too, had Kate not intervened.

Michael Keaton as Frank Logan

Some time later, Frank "coincidently" meets Kate in front of her apartment building. Has he come to kill her to ensure she can't identify him to the police who have already been asking her a lot of questions? Or is he merely fascinated by his guardian angel? Whatever the reason, she doesn't recognize him and he ends up helping her carry her cumbersome Christmas tree up the flights of stairs to her apartment.

So begins a most unlikely friendship, more paternal than romantic. Frank and Kate are both utterly lonely and utterly alone. Craving contact, they fall into step with one another, not saying much, but just glad to have another beating heart in the room. Both are obviously very wounded people, clutching to secrets with vice-like grips—she, her abusive history and he, his profession.

But Frank isn't the only man interested in Kate. Dave (Tom Bastounes), a cop investigating the murder at her office, is also smitten. As their weird little love triangle grows, Dave becomes suspicious of Frank. Part of it is jealousy, part instinct. As Dave begins putting the pieces together, Kate is faced with an impossible decision, all the more complicated by the sudden reappearance of her sadistic husband.

Kelly Macdonald as Kate Frazier

The Merry Gentleman, Keaton's directorial debut, gets its title from the fact that most of the story takes place over the Christmas season. But no one in this film is remotely merry. Kate would be, if she weren't terrified that every time she looked over her shoulder, her husband would be there. Frank would be, if he'd stop extinguishing others' lives. And Dave would be, if he'd only manage to get a handle on his alcoholism, overeating and chain smoking. Instead, everyone is this twisted little triangle is miserable, making for a joyless Christmas and, perhaps for some, a downer of a film.

But The Merry Gentleman is not meant to be a downer. Although it's deliberately—some may say very slowly—psychologically paced, saturated in cold blues and grays, and shot in locations chosen to show urban decomposition, it's actually quite a sweet movie that holds its power close to its vest and shouts in silence rather than whispers in the storm.

Tom Bastounes as Dave Murcheson

The film is suffused with religious imagery and a lavish Catholic philosophy, especially when wrestling with issues of guilt. From the opening shots of the film, we can tell that the church will play a prominent role. Early on, Kate enjoys a cup of coffee while staring at a splendid church across the street that seems to beckon to both her and her pain. She obeys, finding great comfort and solace in its pews and later gushes to a workmate about a statue of Christ with his arms outstretched in welcome.

"I'm not really religious," the workmate says.

"When you see him like that," Kate explains, "religious or not, you just want to run into his arms."

Did Frank have the same experience? Even earlier than Kate, we see him pass the same church, and walk right past the same statue without pausing. The shot, which lasts for nearly half a minute, seems to emphasize the fact that he bypasses the one thing that could give him relief from his crippling guilt and the pervasive desire to end his life. It's not that Frank is uncaring, however. When he encounters a nativity scene in which one of the wise men has toppled over, Frank cannot continue on his way without first righting the oriental king and ensuring everything in the crèche is set up correctly.

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