Entertainment

THE MERRY GENTLEMAN

AT the end of “The Merry Gentleman,” I consulted the press notes to find out what it was about. It’s a crime movie, but no one spends much time gathering evidence. It’s a character study about a blank slate. “Mutual shared silence,” say the press notes, and if the public library is closed, you can certainly partake of lots of that here.

Michael Keaton directs for the first time and stars as Frank, a nice-guy hit man/tailor who strikes up an unexpected friendship with a lonely receptionist (Kelly Macdonald) who witnesses one of his crimes.

The potential for suspense is dropped (there’s a subplot about the receptionist’s flight from her violent husband, but he appears in only a couple of scenes) in favor of lots of hushed interludes in which nothing happens.

The receptionist attracts the detective on the case, who makes awkward passes at her, and every so often someone makes a Christian reference, to no particular end. Through it all, Keaton’s assassin manages to remain a complete cipher who says almost nothing, though in the scene that is meant to prove what a great guy he is, he helps the receptionist burn her Christmas tree. There’s subtle, there’s too subtle and then there’s inert.

Running time: 96 minutes. Rated R (profanity, violence). At the Sunshine and the 62nd and First.