FILM REVIEW
Review Scoring Chart - 10: Masterpiece; 9: Outstanding; 8: Very Good;
7: Good; 6: Above Average; 5: Average; 4: Below Average; 3: Bad; 2:
Awful; 1: Reprehensible; 0: Non-Functional.
KILLING THEM SOFTLY
Dir: Andrew Dominik
Stars: Brad Pitt, Scoot McNairey, James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, Ben Mendelsohn
Running Time: 97 mins
Killing Them Softly currently holds a 95% 'Fresh' rating
at Rotten Tomatoes, which is odd considering how many of the reviews
point out the movie's obvious flaws and spend relatively little time
explaining its merits. I wonder if that's because they couldn't find
any, but felt they probably should have been able to. After all, this
is a movie by Andrew Dominik, director of the acclaimed The
Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, and
stars Brad Pitt, an actor whose A-list status defies his willingness
to take risks on interesting material.
The movie certainly has plenty to say, and its conceit of equating
the circumstances leading up to the present financial crisis with the
robbery of a mob card game is a clever parallel. Unfortunately, the
theme which should be subtext is repeatedly slapped across the
audience's face, and Dominik spends so much time reminding viewers
how clever and stylish he's being that he barely remembers to tell a
story.
Before I begin, a few things need to be explained: first, I'm
aware that one of the stylistic trademarks of George V. Higgins, the
author of the novel on which the movie is based, Cogan's Trade,
is the use of extensive conversations in lieu of action. This is to
give the reader a sense of how people at various levels of the
criminal hierarchy interact, allowing an insight into the workings of
the system. That's fine for a novel, except on film, watching people
chat for an hour an a half is less than stimulating, especially when
every such conversation repeatedly attempt to hammer home the same
theme. Even actors as skillful as Pitt and James Gandolfini, whose
quasi-depressive assassin risks stealing the movie from under its
star's nose, can't keep such overburdened, overwritten exchanges
compelling for long.
I'm also aware the movie isn't trying to tell a story in the
traditional sense. Its aims are made clear from the opening scene,
which cuts between the titles, an industrial car park and a speech by
President Obama. Dominik isn't really building a narrative so much as
a metaphor. This isn't necessarily a problem, except the metaphor is
made blatant from the first frame and developed so little over the
subsequent ninety minutes that the movie says everything it needs to
in the first couple of scenes, and everything after that just feels
like time-wasting. The metaphor is prevented from developing because
the 'story' revolves around Cogan (Pitt) tidying up the aftermath of
the heist, a singular focus which bottlenecks the thematic work.
The movie's early scenes go for laughs and mostly get them,
courtesy of a trio of bumbling would-be-thieves who put together what
they believe is a foolproof plan, despite this being far from the
case. Each of the three talks in a distinctive vernacular and have
different outlooks on what they plan to do with the swag, making
their interactions, and the clashes between their contrasting
personalities, an early treat. A couple of decent sight gags don't
hurt either, even if all of them were spoiled by the trailer.
Unfortunately, these characters go into hiding once Cogan arrives
on the scene to become the centre of attention. His hangdog drawl and
slightly precious attitude towards his job (the title is his term for
killing people from a distance so he doesn't have to listen to them
plead for their lives) puts a dark spin on the too-cool-for-school
persona Pitt established in the Ocean's movies, but doesn't
feel fresh or engage in the same way as listening to the increasingly
ludicrous money-making schemes devised by a wastrel Australian.
Cogan's trade throws him into contact with a number of people decrying
the downfall of their criminal enterprise, be it due to
committee-based conservatism at the top, the collapse of the local
black market economy and its effect on hitman pay, the need to take
action to improve public perception rather than effectively resolve
the situation, or the disappearance of honour among thieves. There
are interesting ideas in play, but since they all revolve around the
same topic, it takes less than a minute to catch onto what the
characters are really talking about, even though the conversations
continue for what can feel like forever.
Unfortunately, the central metaphor the movie is so proud isn't
expressed particularly clearly, and requires Pitt to deliver a speech
at the end which verges on Ayn Rand levels of bluntness. The mob
hierarchy is intended to parallel the different levels on which the
financial sector poisoned the well for everyone operating in its
shadow, although it's difficult to untangle which character is
supposed to represent what aspect of the metaphor. The thieves who
rob the card game, for example, are distinctly working class,
suggesting Dominik considers the low-income people who bought into
subprime mortgages were more responsible for the crisis than those
who set up the irresponsible scheme in the first place, represented
by Ray Liotta's Markie. Markie's fate similarly implies that bankers
don't deserve the treatment they have received, or at the very least
that it was ineffective. There's nothing wrong with taking an
opposing viewpoint to the average opinion - in fact, controversial
perspectives are a valuable part of the debate - except it's
contradicted by Cogan's climactic speech, suggesting the real problem
is people like Markie acting for selfish personal gain.
Between its lengthy deliberations, Cogan commits a number of
assassinations which Dominik portrays in flashy slow motion. Despite
the rest of the movie encouraging viewers to seek out its barely
concealed subtext, these sequences lack any justification for their
stylistic excesses, feeling like they exist more to service the
deceptive trailer rather than express a point within the narrative.
The soundtrack is self-consciously ironic, and there's little
pleasure in watching a burst of CGI blood bursting through the bullet
hole in a man's cheek when it comes across as nothing more than
directorial showboating in a movie otherwise all about meaning.
Despite the outstanding cast, with the star names playing tragic or
devious variations on their most famous roles, Killing Me Softly
has much to say, but is too pleased with itself to realise what a
mess it makes of potentially fascinating ideas. [ 3 ]
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