Violet (Bledel) and Daisy (Ronan) are beautiful, blue-eyed girls – as close to angels in appearance as it`s possible for two humans to be. They are, also, assassins for hire: gun-toting, ass-kicking hit-women who take jobs so they can afford to buy merchandise related to their idol of the moment, Barbie Sunday. Very little seems to get the girls down as they hop, skip and jump cheerfully through their death-riddled lives, until they agree to take out Michael (the late, great Gandolfini), a mysterious man who stole from their boss. Their plans go awry, however, when Daisy starts to forge an ill-advised bond with the man they`re contracted to kill.
This is very much the sort of movie that would benefit greatly from an experienced director. The script shifts with dizzyingly quick speed through an array of tones and genres, mixing and matching the quirky-odd innocence of the two girls (they ride a tricycle to work) with a far darker exploration of their motivations and psyches (how did they come to do what they do?). One moment, Violet is enjoying a bright red lollipop or a cookie; the next, she`s experiencing an existential crisis stemming from a woeful lack of paternal connection. Fletcher doesn`t quite manage to sell the satirical wackiness of his adorably feminine hit-girls, just as he fails to lend much real weight to the faintly screwball relationship that develops between Violet, Daisy and Michael.
Fletcher`s cast is uniformly strong, occasionally filling in the curiously empty blanks left by either his direction or his script. Gandolfini, in particular, provides the film with sad-eyed gravitas, making Michael a figure who can suffer all manner of indignities (including Violet`s repeated failures to procure the ammunition she needs to kill him) and yet believably impress himself upon Violet and Daisy`s reckless young hearts. Bledel and Ronan are both good enough in their roles, though it`s hard to unearth anything really dark and gritty from beneath the pristine, pretty faces for which they were plainly cast.
Throughout Violet & Daisy, Fletcher seems to be making two very different movies: a Tarantino-esque, balls-out action flick reclaiming murder in the form of two angelic girls; and a brooding drama about the loss of self and the importance of family and companionship. Both halves of Fletcher`s very conflicted film teem with ideas and potential (the secret Daisy keeps from Violet is a great little twist), which perhaps explains why it`s all the more frustrating to watch him toggling back and forth between the two without ever really doing justice by either.
Summary: Great ideas abound in this fantastical twist on the assassin tale, but they don`t really coalesce into a coherent whole.
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Shawne Wang