In the context of today's contemporary world, this little movie hits on one of the most important existential issues of our age, the meaning of living and human dignity and respect. Too often, critics search for complex and deep and dense subject matter instead of the more fundamental life issues. The tone of this delightful movie is nuanced and close to but never over the top. It's a finely delicate, simple movie with a brilliant performance by Pierce Brosnan about everyman. Pierce Brosnan who questions his life and another Greg Kinear, a more common businessman faced with ethical dilemmas and stress and fear - something very much in the minds of most men today. These roles ARE the roles that most of us must confront, from sex to marital responsibility, to suriviving somehow in a cutthroat employment world. In this difficult but excellent script that balances and moves effortless between comedy, real world male humor, and the incredulous, to the burnt out experience that many of us feel, The Matador is probably the one movie this year that is most reflects us as individual human beings and has the potential to connect with each of more intimately on important matters than any other movie in 2005.

Unlike George Clooney (Syriana , Pierce Brosnan's role is more complex, more realistic, and believable. Clooney's character is disturbing more for its illogical portrayal of an experienced operate who doesn't come across at all experienced and there is no explanation why not. Unlike Brad Pitt's role in Spy Game (1999) or Matt Damon in The Bourne Identity (2002), George's character just doesn't come across as credible. At least Pierce Brosnan has the poise and the psychological deconstruction that he exhibits as a fascinating performance that a substantial number of us human beings may have felt at one time or another. Pierce's role is superior than Clooney's in that again the sophisticated acting requirements of blending sauve, raw crudeness, humor, and bewilderment, and drama is much more involved than Clooney's more two-dimensional character of befuddlement, false bravado, and drama (that any decent actor is required to be able to do).

Unlike Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang which I found to have uneven pacing and awkward editing, tries too hard to be cute, along with a hard edge (the political correct in fashion thing nowadays), The Matador offers its viewers a more uplifting Lost In Translation of a minimalist plot, except with some dazzling, subtle, low-keyed triple twists at the end of this movie that ranks among the best soft and entertaining climaxes in a movie yet. This movie stands out for its not attempting a seriously consistently dark singular dramatic, complex personality - most people are not in real life experienced that way by other people and so to this movie offers us a more superficial but still vastly meaningly look at the behaviors of these characters in ways that can resonate more deeply than most other movies of 2005 out there if one is willing to look.

Finally, it is not surprising that Mr. Brosnan offers up one of the best male performances of 2005 as his two earlier works strongly suggested and provided evidence of his acting ability - The Tailor of Panama (2001) where he plays a surprisingly similar, not quick as crude intelligence operative and Nomads (1986), my third favorite movie of all time where Brosnan plays a European anthropologist in a role totality out of his other characters in a clearly believable, haunting, and mysteriously eerie thriller.