The Painkiller is based on Francis Veber’s classic French farce, Le Contrat, which premiered in Paris in 1969 and is probably best known in the UK as A Pain in the Ass, the highly successful 1973 film version with Lino Ventura and Jacques Brel.
The comedy is set in two adjoining hotel rooms. In one room is a professional hit-man (Kenneth Branagh) who has an assignment to kill a criminal. In the other room is a local press photographer (Rob Brydon), who is having marital problems and is intent on committing suicide, which proves to be an irritating distraction for the hit-man. A doctor arrives to sedate the photographer but (a classic case of mistaken identity) tranquilizes the hit-man.
Director Sean Foley, who has adapted very freely, is a master when it comes to physical comedy and he rightly concentrates on the physical business. The slapstick is crude and very funny and the attempt to give the characters a little more depth and make it a farce noire in the final moments comes too late and is a waste of time.
Kenneth Branagh and Rob Brydon synchronise and play off each other beautifully. Brydon’s comedy technique is a known factor. The surprise is Branagh who proves to be a natural farceur. His body language is hilarious, one minute cationic, the next as frisky as a horse. Branagh has enormous fun with the role. Foley should direct him in a farce by that master farceur, Georges Feydeau.