Review #626: 'Killing Them Softly' (2012)

Teaming up for the second time after 2007's masterpiece The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford, director Andrew Dominik and star/co-producer Brad Pitt bring us another beautifully bleak piece of cinema with Killing Me Softly. Like Jessie James, Softly is very much a mood piece, full of astonishing imagery that speaks as much about its characters as the actors themselves. But where Jessie James was gripping and wholly absorbing over its 160+ minute running-time, Softly is ultimately quite dull at just 97 minutes, playing with an interesting economic subtext alongside a rather straight-forward crime story, full of characters seen many times before and even played by the same actors.

Two small-time crooks, Frankie (Scoot McNairy) and Russell (Ben Mendelsohn), are drafted in by a gangster known as the Squirrel (Vincent Curatola - The Sopranos' Johnny Sack) to rob a mob card game ran by Markie (Ray Liotta). Markie had robbed his own game in the past and later admitted to it, but was given a pass due to his likeability, and the Squirrel feels he will inevitably get the blame this time. The robbery is a success and Frankie and Russell go to ground, so the mob ask the mysterious Driver (Richard Jenkins) to bring in hired killer Jackie Cogan (Pitt) to find and kill the culprits, only Jackie likes to 'kill them softly' from afar, and realising he knows one of the targets, brings in over-the-hill trigger-man Mickey (James Gandolfini) to help.

With only one female character of note appearing in the film for the duration of about a minute, Killing Me Softly is very male-orientated, featuring a lot of hard men talking in rooms smoking cigarettes and getting down to business. This would be all well and good if the plot threw in any elements of surprise, but the film moves on with an almost resigned inevitability towards a rather straight-forward climax. But this is a film that strives for more than a bunch of criminals whacking each other - that is clear from the repetitive news coverage of the Obama-McCain presidential campaign (the film is set in post-Katrina New Orleans in 2008) - but it tries to hammer the point home. The big joke is that economic hardships even effect those who steal for a living (the robbery causes an imbalance within the criminal economy), but the point is not made with any subtlety - surprising given the care Dominik gave to Jessie James.

All that said, the film still has plenty going for it. The cast are superb, with Gandolfini stealing the film with a relatively small role yet again, as the boozy, sex-obsessed hitman who may have been something in his day, but has become a sad man full of self-loathing due to an unhappy marriage. Mendelsohn impresses as well as a junkie who makes his money from stealing dogs and selling them for profit. But the plaudits must go to cinematographer Greig Fraser, who injects a steely 70's feel to a film set mostly at night, and throws in a moment of ultra slo-mo when an unfortunate character gets riddled with bullets in his car, that is as beautiful as it is ugly. However, these plus-points do not manage to save the film from being a huge disappointment given the talent involved, and with a more interesting plot and less spoon-feeding of its social message, could have been outstanding.


Directed by: Andrew Dominik
Starring: Brad Pitt, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, Richard Jenkins, James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie