In another filmmaker’s hands, Ashby would likely teeter between the two films it is - a reflective drama about a hitman attempting to right his wrongs before dying of cancer, and a light, lovely high-school coming-of-age comedy - and falter. In Tony McNamara’s hands, however, the fine line between some of the more maudlin, sentimental bits and the all-too-familiar high-school genre traits are handled tactfully. Ashby, the eponymous hitman (a tender Mickey Rourke) who moves next door to fresh-faced protagonist, Ed Wallis (a pitch-perfectly cast Nat Wolff), and his single mother, June (a graceful Sarah Silverman), is undoubtedly the main attraction of the film. Rourke brings a much needed heart and captivating gravitas to this tale of people attempting to be the best version of themselves, and infuses Ashby with an incredibly truthful manner of being. However, this film is as much about Ashby’s imperative quest for redemption as it is about Ed’s first venture into adulthood, and finding out just what kind of man he wants to be.
When we first meet Ed - a recent transplant to Virginia - he sticks out like a sore thumb and is conventionally bullied by the football jocks of his new high-school. His English teacher quickly grows an affinity for Ed, as he effuses a glaring intelligence that most of the class doesn’t possess or care to explore. The topic of discussion is Ernest Hemingway, and the motif of proving one’s manhood in the face of danger and death (the main theme of the film). Little does Ed know that he’ll soon have to brave these waters himself, as he’ll be careening through town with his new neighbor, Ashby - a semi-retired CIA operative with an urge to redeem a life of blindly killing for the state before time runs out. At first, Ed is unaware of his neighbor's shadowy past, but as the two spend more time together and their relationship grows stronger, their responsibilities to each other do, too. Ashby becomes a father figure, of sorts, as Ed’s real father is somewhat of a rolling stone. Ed and Ashby regularly eat pancakes together, talk about the bullying jocks at school, how to counter that aggression, girls, and eventually, Ashby’s true past.
Regarding the genre-required love interest, as it were, Emma Roberts plays Eloise as sweetly and delicately as she can without leaning into the cute-nerd cliché too deeply. Like Ed she faces her own hardships and the time-sensitive nature of growing up. Her mother died of a cerebral hemorrhage, and it’s clear that Ed and Eloise are looking for similar answers in their lives, and would be a natural fit together. Not that their semi-unstable homes require this of them - rather, these are two genuinely empathetic, intelligent young people with the scales in their lives slightly off-kilter, that would benefit from helping each other.
As Ed becomes wide receiver for the high-school football team (a slight departure from his bookworm tendencies introduced to us in the beginning) he’s quickly confronted with those ideas, in the physical sense, at first. He keeps evading his opponents, scared to face the consequences of taking the ball and running with it. A simple, though effective metaphor, which Ashby takes note of and will eventually have to deal with himself. “Never getting hit, can’t last”, a sly Eloise hints at her newfound crush. As an audience familiar with these kind of films, we know that we’ll eventually see this hurdle cleared before the last reel concludes, but the welcome surprise is McNamara’s ability to treat us to a fairly graceful, delicate rendition of it, with notes that are more human than rote. On paper, Ashby might sound like a constructed ploy to gain sympathy through a combination of safe levity, a bit of faux-serious assassin action, and a few Hallmark sniffles sprinkled on top, but the film tows the line deftly.
