Maybe she thought she'd get laid? As we saw, the life of an assasin is a lonely one 😉

She didn't ever seem to show any interest in Jack in any scene.

Even the picnic butterfly scene? She even asks him if he brings women there... 😉

More likely because she wanted to find out if it was part of his routine.

Just watched this - what I don't understand was why Pavel shot her when she was about to kill Jack. That made no sense at all. In fact why did he kill her anyway? Has he got enough assassins to be going on with that he can do without two. If she was tasked with killing Jack why not just do it without meeting him or engaging with him in any way - why all the nonsense of needing a gun that will fit into a suitcase fire this many rounds at this speed rubbish? She was a professional assassin for goodness sake - she didn't need a gun he made to kill him with. And if Pavel needed to hire assassins why put himself at risk by doing the job himself on the busiest day of the town year? One plot hole? It was a veritable sieve !!

Pavel didn't shoot her. The gun blew up in her face.

Pavel didn't shoot her. The gun blew up in her face.

I didn't realise that - I guess that would have been Edward's doing then. So she trusted him to give her a decent gun to kill him with!! It's just another stupidity in this film - there was no need for her to get a gun off him if they wanted him dead - she was an assassin - she probably had a personal arsenal. Why alert him - make him suspicious - why not just take him out without him even setting eyes on her. Just silly.

Yes, it's all pretty silly when you sit back and consider it all. But then, there would be no movie without all these implausibilities I guess.

I don't think these supposed "plot holes" matter at all to this movie... even reading them now, it doesn't register as anything strange for a work of fiction (of even non-fiction)...

Moreover, this move in particular didn't seem to be about the plot and events, rather entirely about the mood and atmosphere... the visuals, the framing, the compositions and editing... all come together to give us an understanding of a man at this stage of his life...

It's not a nerd culture movie about tracking the paths of bullets and other minutiae, rather the sensual aspects... how it makes you feel and it's beautiful and entertaining because of it...

@CheekyMonkey said:

I don't think these supposed "plot holes" matter at all to this movie...

When you place a story on Earth in a certain era, certain things (like the laws of physics, prevailing social mores, rules, laws, etiquette, etc.) need to be adhered to in the story. It's not a fantasy film. Suspension of disbelief is always required of an audience when watching any film, but too much of it can turn an audience off.

so, just because she didn't try to kill him at exactly the time you expected means that the film violated the laws of physics?

c'mon... look around you... people behave this way all the time... why do we expect movie characters to be less fallible than people IRL...

If I'm getting paid to assassinate someone and I spend a half hour alone with them in a remote location with no one around, and I have a rifle in my hands, I'm pretty sure I'm going to bust a cap in the targets brain pan right then and there. If there was an overriding reason not to carry out the assassination, then that needed to be made clear in the film because it makes very little sense to wait until there are a few hundred people milling around the target in broad daylight. Come on, seriously? It's lazy, lazy filmmaking.

I think a lot of you missed the point that Pavel didn't order the hit until the final minutes of the movie. Watch carefully, it isn't until Jack tells him "I'll make the delivery and then I'm out" that Pavel makes the decision to have Jack killed. Right after that call ends he places a call to Mathilde and says "I want you to listen carefully..." (end scene) implying that that's when he gave her the final go-ahead.

Pavel didn't want Jack dead at the outset, otherwise he would've done it in Rome. Instead Pavel sent Jack to the remote countryside to get his head on straight so he'd return to work, following the life-altering shakeup in Sweden. The whole time Pavel was keeping tabs on Jack via Mathilde, hoping he'd regain his edge. Only at the end does Pavel, and the audience, realize that Jack's experience in the countryside had the opposite effect. Jack developed humanity.

When Pavel learns this, that's the moment he tells Mathilde to go ahead with the execution which she would've done immediately if not for the busload of tourists. Her next opportunity was at the procession. But Jack, at the last minute sensing something was off, had rigged her gun to backfire.

No plot holes. Brilliant, subtle writing. Just somewhat tough to follow because we aren't hit over the head with all the details. The audience is expected to figure it out. Not your typical braindead thriller where everything is explained in blatant detail, but the answers are there.

@rooprect said:

I think a lot of you missed the point that Pavel didn't order the hit until the final minutes of the movie. Watch carefully, it isn't until Jack tells him "I'll make the delivery and then I'm out" that Pavel makes the decision to have Jack killed. Right after that call ends he places a call to Mathilde and says "I want you to listen carefully..." (end scene) implying that that's when he gave her the final go-ahead.

Pavel didn't want Jack dead at the outset, otherwise he would've done it in Rome. Instead Pavel sent Jack to the remote countryside to get his head on straight so he'd return to work, following the life-altering shakeup in Sweden. The whole time Pavel was keeping tabs on Jack via Mathilde, hoping he'd regain his edge. Only at the end does Pavel, and the audience, realize that Jack's experience in the countryside had the opposite effect. Jack developed humanity.

When Pavel learns this, that's the moment he tells Mathilde to go ahead with the execution which she would've done immediately if not for the busload of tourists. Her next opportunity was at the procession. But Jack, at the last minute sensing something was off, had rigged her gun to backfire.

No plot holes. Brilliant, subtle writing. Just somewhat tough to follow because we aren't hit over the head with all the details. The audience is expected to figure it out. Not your typical braindead thriller where everything is explained in blatant detail, but the answers are there.

Hey @MongoLloyd, has @rooprect sufficiently addressed your concern?

I have (finally) watched this movie. Yes, the order was not given early, it was given after Jack declared his intention to quit. @rooprect indeed nailed it.

And, yes, this is a movie about aesthetic, mood, feel. It's more sensual than sensical. @CheekyMonkey is right on the money.

There's no Hollywood happy ending, it's just a bittersweet story of two lonely people who find each other and set each other free, in respective manners of speaking.