The first impression for me, watching this movie was: What the hell - a surprise out of nowhere. The atmosphere is sometimes as cold as the mind of a hit-man must be. Although, one can easily feel sympathy for him. So that should be the real title for this movie - Sympathy for a hit-man.
There is no way to compare the older hit-man movie (which follows the the game series) with this one.'Interview' is much harder, much more direct. While the body count is lower, and the pacing is much slower, with the absence of explosions and machine guns dismembering buildings, it's intensity is several classes above the earlier 'big' movie's.
Violence erupts fast and lethal, man's life isn't worth a second thought. Hit-man Victor does his job disciplined, results-oriented and precise.
So it is some kind of 'film noir' of todays days, an exception I would put in a row with Old boy or Sin City. You may love or hate them both, but they are also undoubtedly outstanding movies of their own kind.
This movie's strengths do come mostly from the presence of Luke Gross, who perfectly depicts a thug soldier, slowly awakening from an early inner death to an imagination of some kind of a life.
After that, there is a compelling soundtrack, and then, last but not least, for a first timer, I must say, an unbelievable talented director (Perry Bhandal), a late starter from whom we should hear and see more, in the near future, i hope.
There is also a solid supporting cast of pure professionals, that should be said for those of us who are reading here some reviews where an amateur cast is guessed. That's definitively not the case, you won't see anyone who can't act - on the contrary, even the kids are playing their parts very well. And of course, the Romanian characters are looking like Romanians, even when played by Brits, because Romanians can look like Russians or Italians or even like well-styled Englishmen ;-)
The few small flaws shouldn't be suppressed: First, Romanians are speaking together with a slight accent, that's sometimes irritating, but maybe is a tribute to those cast members who do not natively speak English. Second, the story itself is a bit confusing, and is not that believable when it comes to its solution; Even the interview idea per se is IMO a bit too far-fetched. At last, I felt that the age difference between grown-up Hit-man Victor and his Romanian Mentor Sergej is not shown properly in terms of make-up styling. But be assured, these are minor weaknesses.
Overall I cannot give less than 8 stars for atmospheric tense, cinematography and character depiction. While I found most of the past movies focusing on professional killers boring, this one by no means, thanks to actors, the director/writer, and the soundtrack composer.
