PANIC (2000)

How many times have we heard a midlife crisis-sufferer say he'd kill for a better job? In PANIC, Alex (William H. Macy) really means it. He's a contract killer indentured to the man who taught him the business, his dad! (Donald Sutherland). Trying to work up the nerve to quit, Alex starts seeing a psychologist (John Ritter). Of course, in Alex's line of work, spilling one's guts to outsiders is drastically career-limiting, so now Alex has been ordered to bump off the hapless therapist. PANIC treats us to a few smiley face moments such as when Alex and the young son he adores share bedtime bonding time, and when Alex, seeking a bit of excitement outside his dull marriage, falls for a young fellow therapy patient (Neve Campbell). But when Alex’s father, looking to add future head count to the family business, gives his six-year old grandson his first lesson in killing (a squirrel) – the same lesson Alex got at the same tender age – things turn very, very dark. Macy, portraying a man struggling with 40 years' worth of suppressed rage, and the patrician-looking Sutherland, seemingly the perfect Grandfather until we see him violently lose his temper over some spilt model plane glue, make each of their characters too real for comfort.