The heart of this oddly pointlessness film is a woman named Kate (Kelly Macdonald, Scottish accent intact), an overly polite Pollyanna whose borderline-childish sweetness is at odds with the strength of character it requires to escape a physically abusive marriage. Alone in wintry Chicago, her new home, she is fought over like a toy by virtually every man she meets, finding solace only in a stilted friendship with the near-mute, suicidally depressed contract killer Logan (Michael Keaton). There are enough elements at play to sustain anticipatory interest throughout The Merry Gentleman, but when it ends, one's left empty handed and unsatisfied. by Marjorie Skinner