THE MATADOR may be Pierce Brosnan’s finest hour (or 97 minutes), diving fearlessly into a seedy, lives-in-the-shadows character with the ironic last name ‘Noble’, a lethal loner who aptly sums himself up with “Just consider me the best cocktail party story you ever met.”

Mexico City. Desperate to restart his stalled career and despondent over the likelihood of that happening, businessman ‘Danny Wright’ (Greg Kinnear) has a chance meeting in a bar with inebriated ‘Julian Noble’ (Brosnan), and despite Julian’s off-putting manner and comments the two attracted opposites hang out long enough for nice guy Danny to discover that Julian is a professional assassin. Months later, Julian shows up at Danny’s home in Denver and asks for a favor. Danny’s wife ‘Bean’ (Hope Davis) is charmed by Julian (on good behavior with his “only friend“) but what is it exactly that the unexpected visitor wants, needs and expects?

Nervy black comedy with a bittersweet edge was written & directed by Richard Shepard. The tight-wrapped peek at nihilism’s price tag, decency’s rewards and the often razor-edge of choices garnered good reviews in 2005, especially for Brosnan’s about-face from his dapper persona evinced in his quartet of Bond films and the sleek remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. Though 007 and Noble are in the same line of international trouble-shooting, the boozing, blithely amoral and casually coarse Julian is considerably less refined, and decidedly more street-level human. He does possess shreds of honor and integrity, however, enough to make his professional predicament pitiable. The ever-affable, always honest (and oddly underrated) Kinnear makes a relatable everyman counterpoint, and pitch-perfect Davis shines in her few brief scenes.

Made for $12,500,000, it took 140th place in the States in ’05, part of a global gross that only reached $17,347,000. Buoyed by a superb soundtrack from Rolfe Kent, including some killer tunes like “El Matador” from the Argentine ska band Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, it also has small roles for Philip Baker Hall and Dylan Baker.