It’s a sensible gambit of a gap scene by author/director Shane Atkinson. Harry is a hitman. And as soon as he dispatches together with his first sufferer—one on a protracted listing of many—he’s known as for one more job. This one, within the tiny brush city of LaRoy, Texas. Atkinson’s hilarious function debut is a barn burner of a western-thriller whose Coen Brothers-inspired nods give life to its meek protagonist.
In one other twist, the protagonist just isn’t Harry. It’s Ray (the quietly affecting John Magaro), a local of LaRoy, Texas. Early within the movie, Ray meets with Skip (an endearing Steve Zahn), who’s simply begun a job as a personal investigator. Skip is a bumbling, kindhearted fool; he attire in a Black cowboy hat and blazer, most likely as a result of he’s watched one too many “Walker, Texas Ranger” episodes. However he does have essential data: black and white pictures of Ray’s magnificence queen spouse Stacy-Lynn (Megan Stevenson) stepping inside a seedy motel room. The revelation forces a shell-shocked Ray to please the demanding Stacy-Lynn by fulfilling her dream. He desires to fund her salon—he simply wants to search out some money.
Ray is an all-too-trusting man. For one, he doesn’t consider Stacy-Lynn might ever cheat on him. Worst but, when he turns to his prickish brother Junior (Matthew Del Negro), who owns the household ironmongery store with Ray, for extra cash, he buys Junior’s cries of poverty regardless of his brother shopping for a model new yacht for his palatial dwelling. Ray is so pitiful he buys a gun so he would possibly shoot himself in a strip joint’s car parking zone. By likelihood, nevertheless, a person jumps in his automobile with an envelope of money to pay for a scheduled hit. Eager to lastly be any person, Ray performs the a part of Harry. He assassinates his goal, is then thrown right into a wider conspiracy involving a used automobile salesman, after which should retrieve a suitcase full of money earlier than Harry hunts him down—all whereas attempting to save lots of his flatlining marriage.
“LaRoy, Texas” is a convoluted yarn whose pointless intricacies aren’t helped by Ray’s unbelievable stupidity. Someplace between not connecting the plain dots of his spouse’s infidelity and believing {that a} salon will make it alright, the character jumps the shark to frustratingly insipid, to the purpose that you simply’re able to homicide him, too. Fortunately, Magaro, is so glorious, so comfortable enjoying susceptible losers, that you simply’re compelled to look previous the writing’s flaws. The identical could possibly be stated of the chemistry between Magaro and Zahn. This can be a movie propelled by their unguarded male friendship, one shared by two unserious failures in want of somebody to acknowledge their passions, wishes, skills, and personhood. In one another, they discover a worthy, shifting mirror.