Nathaniel R reporting from the Toronto International Film Festival
We must ban the use of the word "problematic" so that it may be deployed to describe pop culture offerings which are PROBLEMATIC in all caps. (re)Assignment is one of those, even if its too dumb to capitalize on its sophomoric provocations.
A hired hitman named Frank (Michelle Rodriguez...with prosthetic dick because her figurative big one wasn't enough) is drugged and operated on by an amoral vengeful doctor (Sigourney Weaver) and wakes up with breasts, vagina and a smoother more beautiful face...
Think Almodóvar's The Skin I Live In minus that film's sensational artistry and wits and in the service of a cheap B movie with noir and comic book affectations.
The story is told with not one but two flashback cliché crutches: an interview about the crimes with the Doctor, now imprisoned. And a videotaped narration by the hitman, in his new female body, looking back on the events. The two expository layers are agonizingly numbing. So we look to the action scenes for thrills. But there aren't any: Rodriguez shoots people, that's it. There are zero 'what will happen? and what will their fight be like?' setpieces.
Every actress should do a strait-jacket role at least once don't you think?
The only thing salvageable about this tone deaf mess is the admittedly high camp value of watching Michelle Rodriguez scream with terror when touching her own vagina and breasts. Oh, and Sigourney Weaver (who we love a little, okay?). The actress icon defaults to her inimitable wooden-yet-not mode for her line readings. The doctor's superiority complex to everyone she comes in contact with brings several laughs, albeit repetitive ones. It's also surprisingly easy to read this disdain as eye rolls about the movie itself.
Director Walter Hill came to fame with The Warriors in 1979 and made macho action and comedy pictures regularly up until the mid 90s. Unversed in most of his filmography, I cannot comment on what became of his previous gifts, if he had them, but this is a terrible picture. D-