A film review by Craig J. Koban December 6, 2012 |
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KILLING THEM SOFTLY
Jackie: Brad Pitt /
Markie: Ray Liotta /
Frankie: Scoot McNairy /
Mickey: James Gandolfini /
Driver: Richard Jenkins /
Russell: Ben Mendelsohn /
Dillon: Sam Shepard |
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KILLING
THEM SOFTLY is two films in one, the first of which often works with a
reasonable amount of modest success, whereas the second all but suffocates
and stilts the other. On one
hand, the film showcases a decidedly subdued, grungy, and deeply
nihilistic look at low level crooks, mobsters, and one particular hitman. On
the other hand, director Andrew Dominik’s crime noir – adapted from
the 1974 George V. Higgins novel COGAN’S TRADE – mixes in an
cautionary theme of capitalism run amok and the financial crisis and U.S.
presidential race of 2008, which seems mightily forced and labored at
trying to draw meaningful parallels to the underlining organized crime
tale. It’s
interesting enough that Dominik and company use the mafia genre to comment
on the past and current economic fragilities of America, but it’s
just that drawing connections between the murderous thugs who seem
desperate to make ends meat with the duplicitous nature of American
politics rings as kind of patently obvious all throughout.
The level of fiscal dysfunction that befalls the mob enforcers in
the film, I guess, mirrors the backstage and public squabbles that beset
politicians in the wake of the '08 financial crisis that nearly unraveled
a nation. Yet, Dominik
hammers home this cynical message with the subtlety of a bullet to the
head. There’s nothing at
all soft-pedaled about the thematic sermonizing that KILLING THEM
SOFTLY
engages in, which has the negative consequence of distracting viewers away
from the meatier and more immersive aspects of his crime story. KILLING
THEM SOFTLY moves the original novel’s setting to post-Katrina New Orleans
and introduces us to one specific “goodfella” and heist mastermind
named Squirrel (Vincent Curatola), who decides to rob an illegal poker
game run by a lowlife named Markie Trattman (Ray Liotta), who has a dicey
past of robbing his own poker game that was filled with other high rolling
wiseguys. Markie was
interrogated for this past indiscretion, but he miraculously managed to
convince them that he was innocent. However,
when his underground poker ring starts back up he makes the cardinal
blunder of drunkenly admitting culpability to the past crime of robbing
it.
Amazingly, the mob decides to give the poor sap a free pass. Squirrel,
however, believes that if he knocks off an upcoming poker game then the
mob will instantly think that it was Markie’s doing.
This leads to him hiring past crime associate, Frankie (Scoot
McNairy) and his buddy, Russell (Ben Mendelsohn), a rather slimy, dirty,
and unstable drug addict. The
pair of hired goons manage to knock off Markie’s poker game and
make off with the loot, which makes the innocent Markie look like a wanted man
in the mafia's eyes. This
allows
Driver (Richard Jenkins) - a lawyer and spokesperson for the local mob - to
call in and hire and expert hitman named Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) to take
care of all the loose ends. Jackie
decides that he will enlist another assassin, Mickey (James Gandolfini) to
assist him with taking out Russell, Frankie, and Markie, but his mission
gets complicated really fast when it appears that Mickey is battling
sobriety. Some
of the best sequences of the film are the most simple, which involve
Jackie discussing various aspects of his mission with Driver and later Mickey. Dominik, who’s
known for being a foremost cinematic stylist, seems to have a sure hand
for just letting his camera linger on two subjects as they discuss the
tools of the trade and the best method of eliminating their respective
targets. Jackie’s
philosophy on murder is echoed in the film’s title: he does not like to
get too close or “touchy feely” with his targets, who usually get
sick, cry for their mothers, or plead for their lives when they know death
is near. Rather, he prefers
to “kill them softly” from afar or without them knowing, which is
quicker, cleaner, and more definitive.
Initially, Driver wants Markie “roughed up”, but Jackie believes that’s cruel and unusual
punishment; just blowing Markie away without warning, in his cold and calculated
mind, would be more humane. Such
a surprisingly talky mob picture requires solid performances, and KILLING
THEM SOFTLY certainly contains them.
Brad Pitt is not required to stretch his thespian talents much in
his role, but he makes Jackie unapologetically deadly, blunt, discreetly
menacing, and strangely charming nonetheless.
Gandolfini, on the other hand, creates an even more perversely
amoral and downtrodden individual in his one-time razor-sharp and
skilled hitman that now is reduced to drowning in booze and his own
alcoholism. Ben Mendelsohn is more
than convincing as his two-timing and frequently spaced-out junkie. And there’s
just something about every Richard Jenkins performance that feels so
lived-in, natural, and credible at every turn.
His atypical casting in a film like this makes his scenes with Pitt’s Jackie bristle
with an unpredictable and understated edge; you never really sure where
Driver’s coming from or what he’ll order next. As
he displayed in THE
ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD (which also
starred Pitt), Dominik still infuses KILLING ME SOFTLY with moments of
brutal elegance in terms of its action sequences.
The film is more than frequently spellbinding at times on a visual
level, as Dominik turns individual moments of gun violence and fisticuffs
into ballets of blood-soaked liveliness.
One particular hit has Dominik use slow-motion to the point of
being pornographic, as he shows festishistic shots of bullets being
emptied from chambers, penetrating glass, and then finally entering and
exiting their intended prey. An
extended scene where Liotta’s Markie gets mercilessly pummeled is
arguably one of the most viscerally powerful and ingeniously staged
beat-down sequences in a film in a long while.
Dominik, if anything, has a supreme command of the filmmaking craft. I just wished, though, that he had better intuition when it came to KILLING THEM SOFTLY's narrative momentum (at 90-plus minutes, the film feels painfully long at times). There’s also not much of an overreaching plot to be had in the film, and – as stated – the way the script obsessively draws connective dots between Jackie’s trade and his growing disillusionment in it with moments of Barack Obama and John McCain pontificating on TVs in the background on the nature of capitalism and the shaky financial situation that is riddling America. KILLING THEM SOFTLY has a lot going for it: solid and gritty performances, a spectacular visual sense, and sharp dialogue exchanges that give the film a strong, evocative, and unsettling sense of dynamism. Yet, all of those good ingredients are somewhat done in by the script’s overly telegraphed analogies between American politics and organized crime, which are not subtle or soft. At one key point Jackie blares out, “America is not a country, it’s a business. Now fucking pay me!” See what I mean? |
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