Fleeing an abusive relationship Kate Frazier heads to Chicago and gets a job as a receptionist; one day as she leaves work she looks up at the falling snow and sees a man, Frank Logan, standing on a rooftop about to jump; she screams and he falls backwards onto the roof. When the police arrive there is no sign of the man so she goes home feeling good about saving a life. It is only later that she learns he was a killer who had shot a man moments before! She meets the man again when he helps her with her Christmas tree although she has no idea who he is. They gradually become friends although the police haven't lost interest in Kate; mostly because one of the officers is hoping for a less then professional relationship with her. When Kate's husband returns claiming to have found God she is scared and tells the police but it is Frank who 'deals' with him… it is only a matter of time before she discovers the truth about him and when she does will she be safe?The packaging for this suggests a thriller with a fair amount of action; in fact we only see Frank kill two people and those are in early scenes designed to show his character rather than to be exciting. There are no chases, shootouts or explosions and the small number of deaths that occur later are off-screen; we just see them as they are found. This is far more a character study as we get to know Kate and Frank as they in turn get to know each other and their secrets. Kelly Macdonald is delightful as Kate; nicely capturing her character's nervousness. Michael Keaton is equally good as Frank the suicidal hit man… he also does a fine job directing; I wouldn't have guessed this was his first film in that role. Despite the title this is not exactly a merry film although there are a few gentle laughs to be had. Overall a good film for those who don't need lots of action and don't need to see everything wrapped up neatly at the end.

I applaud Keaton for taking his shot behind the camera. However, when I watched the film, I did not know he had directed it. But sometimes, as an audience member, you simply get the feeling about 10-15 minutes in, that you may not in very reliable, or skilled hands. That was the case with The Merry Gentleman.The problems mainly lay with the script. There are FAR too many improbabilities and convenient coincidences in the story to make it believable, and these start to become more and more noticeable as the film goes on. By the time I got half-way through the film, I still didn't have much of an idea of what the central motive of either character was, especially Michael Keaton, and after awhile, I began to stop caring. Michael Keaton plays a professional hit-man, though we never know for who, or why, or even anything about his targets. All we know is that he appears to be terribly sad about it. He is suicidal (the way his first attempt is foiled is practically out of a Buster Keaton comedy), but I would think that a character who was a professional hit-man would come up with far simpler and effective methods to off himself than the ones he attempts in the movie. A gun, maybe? Also, if he's so tortured about what he does, wouldn't make sense for him to kill himself BEFORE you completes another job?? We never really find out much about this character as he slowly moves through the film mumbling a word here or a word there. Even in a scene in a hospital scene that appears to be inserted into the film to try and give the audience some idea of who this character is, we still get nothing...and that nothing takes a whole lot of time to get to. There is a strange plot twist in the 2nd half of the film, where writer tries to tie up the loose end of the abusive husband. All I can say is that it involves yet another convenient coincidence involving a business card to a local hotel.Kelly McDonald, a fine actress, is really the lead of the film, but even here the writer didn't give her character much logic to work with. The film opens with her leaving her abusive husband after he gives her a nasty shiner. Somehow, within a few days, she is suddenly in a new city, with a new job. Just like that. How this all happened, again is a mystery. Even though the black eye is something she'd rather hide and not talk about, she bizarrely shows up at an office Christmas party where she certainly must know that she'll be asked about it repeatedly (which, of course, she is) . Obviously not wanting to jump into any new relationships due to her abusive past, she rejects the advances of a few of her new co- workers, but then inexplicably falls for Michael Keaton's character after one brief run-in, who, in their first meeting, comes off as a bit, well....creepy. For a smart girl, she also seems completely clueless that a police officer investigating a case she's involved in as a witness, is interested in her romantically. The light takes a while to go on apparently.All and all, there's never enough of anyone's life to really dig into, but more a 2-dimensional picture of it all. The look and tone of the film is a bit of a mess. There is a slew of completely unmotivated camera moves and cuts that defy all logic, almost as if Keaton was terrified of having the film look too plain. As a result, it winds up being a mishmash of different styles that belong in a dozen different films. This could also be said of the mind-boggling score and music cues. In the end, it seems like the film really didn't know what it wanted to be; sometimes a gritty drama, sometimes a Billy Wilder comedy, sometimes a teary melodrama, and sometimes a Basic Instinct-type thriller. Though the last 20 minutes of the film do actually do manage to build some tension through proper pacing, the ending is simply befuddling. There's a difference between leaving an ending open because you want to challenge the audience into thinking about what might happen, and leaving an ending open because you simply can't come up with a proper or satisfying one. I can only imagine that this film got made because the writer knew Keaton, Keaton signed on to play the (quite undeveloped) lead role, and the financing followed from there.

"A stunning surprise" and a "Masterpeice"? More like "Mediocre"! It was slow paced but I give it credit that it wasn't your ordinary Hollywood movie that would've had the characters jumping into bed, or massive explosions to buildings and cars.The ending was the worst. Having Michael Keaton's character just walk off into the sunset left too many questions unanswered, which I hate in a movie that takes the cheap way out. What happened with Kate? Did she and Detective Murcheson finally sit down for a complete dinner? Did Detective Murcheson gather enough evidence to have a warrant issued for Frank Logan? Guess I'm glad we only spend 99 cents on this, purchasing the movie from a Blockbuster going out of business sale.

Michael Keatons directorial debut is incredible. A beautifully paced film about relationships lonely people and a world of difference between occupations and normal perceptions of society. A subtle bringing together of lost souls. It reminded of Eastwoods style--little dialogue, gestures and expressions sighs and looks counting for the shift of emotions. A dark haunting film magnificently photographed,with shadow darkness and light comprising a stunning view. Miss Mcdonald who I remember from an HBO film with Bill Nighy is simply superb in the role of a receptionist. with one fellow worker friend and a secret reason for her independence. If you want to see a real haunting film about the meaning of life and the world of humanity, I beg you to see this film. I see performances of Oscars and the best film I've seen this year so far.