I'm curious how anyone involved with the making of this film saw the final cut and said "awesome, let's get it out there!"

I get that writers James Wolf and Nick Stagliano (also the director) are newb filmmakers, but this is just a waste of everyone's (the viewers and those involved with the film) time. A 5th grader could've written a better screenplay. It had plot and technical issues galore. There were scenes that where irrelevant and/or made no sense. It was predictable. It was implausible. It was ridiculous. And you can't just use the word "noir" as an excuse to describe this mess. The 110 runtime was excessive for the little substance the story had, and the slow pacing got to the point of making this film annoying to watch.

The cinematography and performances were the only somewhat redeeming qualities. Sad to say this film doesn't do Hopkins any favors on his resume. It's a very generous 3/10 from me.

Ok, at first I got hooked by the trailer, which set me to expect something good out of this movie, and by Anthony Hopkins, who's (usually) a safe bet. And it was a mistake, I admit!

All characters are pretty flat and shallow, dialogue is superficial and performance is disengaging (specially Abbie Cornish!),and sequence of event's does not make any sense

Put all of that aside. Finishing the movie in retrospect I asked myself: WTF just happened??? The only answer my super ego dictated was that I wasted another 1:30 hrs of my life due to not responding to my gut feeling that it's a trap!

I really wanted to like this movie, but I couldn't. 5 stars for cinematography and Hopkins performance, zero for everything else except Abbie Cornish's performance that is -2!

If you find this review unhelpful (which is a sorta true) then imagine your disappointment when you watch this movie! Sorry.

When was the last time something didn't work out the way you planned it? The lead character in writer & director Nick Stagliano's polished but predictable crime thriller "The Virtuoso" is a lone assassin whose conscience haunts him. Sadly, things don't augur well for our anonymous anti-hero who abhors making a mess of anything. Not only does his conscience bug him, but it also lands him in the crosshairs of rival assassins. Anson Mount of AMC's western cable series "Hell on Wheels" (2011-2016) delivers a stoic performance as the addled assassin. You know a movie is in trouble when its protagonist is too sympathetic for his own good. Moreover, everybody comes gunning for him. Listed in the credits simply as 'The Virtuoso," our generic anti-hero knows enough about his risky business to survive despite several close calls. Anybody who has seen the vintage Charles Bronson movie "The Mechanic" (1968) is acquainted with all the usual storytelling tropes. Our central character tangles with three other lethal killers just as disciplined and dangerous. Clocking in at a palatable 110 minutes, this methodical, R-rated, anatomy of an assassin generates enough intrigue to keep your mind off the time. After all, Mr. Virtuoso knew what he was getting himself into when he became an assassin for hire. Two-time Oscar-winning Best Actor Anthony Hopkins plods into and out of this potboiler, but his presence is no less hypnotic in spite of its brevity. Hopkins delivers an unforgettable monologue that could have been in a serious film about Vietnam like Oliver Stone's "Platoon" (1986). Veteran actors such as David Morse, Eddie Marsan, and Abbie Cornish surround Mount and Hopkins, and nobody gives a bad performance.

"The Virtuoso" shows early potential. We witness our lone assassin make two incredible shots. He kills an unsavory ruffian in bed with a prostitute. She escapes with his blood on her, but not before she loots his pockets. Stagliano and scenarist James C. Wolf often let this enigmatic killer share his innermost thoughts with a play-by-play commentary about the perils of his profession. Stagliano uses this voice-over narration because Mr. Virtuoso isn't given to loquacity. Our nameless protagonist lives alone, like Charles Bronson in "The Mechanic" (1972) and stays 'off the grid' like Tom Cruise in "Jack Reacher" (2012) and "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back" (2016). Secluding himself from society, he has no friends and resides in the woods. He gives food for a white dog that visits him at his cabin. The only person he trusts is his late father's friend who served alongside him in Vietnam. Although he performs his first assigned hit without a flaw, owing to good intel and precise planning, our assassin's luck changes. Tasked with an impossible timetable, Virtuoso has a 48-hour window of opportunity to liquidate an unscrupulous company executive. At the last minute, his best-laid plans go awry when innocent bystanders blunder into his killing zone. He shoots at the executive as the guy is speeding toward him along a city street in a red Mercedes. Virtuoso calculated his bullet would make the Mercedes swerve left rather than right. Instead of crashing headlong into a building, the executive slams into a curbside motorhome and dies in a blazing inferno. Meantime, the son watches in paralyzed horror as flames envelop his mom. The image of a woman wreathed in fire sears itself into Virtuoso's conscience.

Later, at the cemetery, where his father is buried, Virtuoso is surprised when the Mentor (Anthony Hopkins of "Silence of the Lambs") appears without warning. Since he hasn't answered his cell phone, Virtuoso suspects the Mentor is annoyed with him. Initially, the Mentor reminds him that collateral damage is a constant liability. He recounts a memory when Virtuoso's father and he piled out of a chopper in Vietnam and participated in a massacre of innocent men, women, and children. They acted like good soldiers and followed orders without question. When a movie cannot depict obscene violence, the filmmakers resort to disturbing dialogue. You feel chills as the Mentor describes the moral quandary he found himself in with orders to murder unarmed civilians. Now, he dreads the prospect that his best friend's son may have lost his nerve. The Mentor arranges a new assignment for him in upstate New York. A mysterious antagonist nicknamed "White River" is his target. Virtuoso cruises a local restaurant for leads before he checks into the town's only motel. He narrows his enigmatic quarry down to four suspects: an amorous waitress (Abbie Cornish of "Geostorm"),a gruff Deputy Sheriff (David Morse of "The Rock"),a local yokel, 'Handsome' Johnnie (Richard Brake of "3 from Hell"),and a hard-bitten Loner (Eddie Marsan of "Wrath of Man"),with a gun bulging in a shoulder holster under his jacket.

Those who crave neo-noir crime thrillers will eventually smell a rat in this ruckus. Virtuoso whittles down a list of suspects. He kills one guy, staging his death like a burglary gone bad, and slips a Mickey Finn into another's liquor when the fellow isn't looking. The message is clear. Trust nobody. Indeed, the moment you relax your vigilance, some savvy adversary will terminate you with extreme prejudice. The last-minute revelation about Virtuoso's target is a humdinger. Nevertheless, everything Virtuoso has been babbling about in his interior monologues suggests he may not be as sharp a shooter as we have been led to believe. Everybody is expendable in "The Virtuoso," so this amoral melodrama may frustrate spectators who want a winner to emerge triumphant at fadeout. Eventually, the suspense that gradually intensifies near the end suddenly flatlines, and the big surprise leaves a bitter taste. "The Virtuoso" boasts top-notch production values and looks better than the average, run-of-the-mill, indie film. Clearly, Hopkins is the best thing about it, but he isn't around long enough, while Stagliano does stage some suspenseful shootouts. Alas, you may feel like you've wasted your time with "The Virtuoso" because things don't work out for him.