The Merry Gentleman is a 2008 neo-noir film directed by Michael Keaton (in his directorial debut), and starring Keaton and Kelly Macdonald. It is about a woman who leaves an abusive relationship to start a new life in Chicago, where she forms a friendship with a hitman who is undergoing his own emotional crisis.

Plot

The Merry Gentleman is the story of Kate, a young woman who flees her abusive policeman husband, moving to Chicago. In her new life, she befriends a co-worker but otherwise generally keeps to herself, due to her embarrassment over a black eye left over from her husband's latest attack. Most everyone she encounters is of low character, which reinforces her feelings of loneliness and reclusion.