Directed by: Andrew Dominik
Starring: Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, and Richard Jenkins
Plot: After the heist of a local card game, a mob hit man is hired to clean up the mess.
Review:
Frankie (Scoot McNairy) and Russell (Ben Mendelson) are two dirtball hoodlums who get wind of a possible heist. They hear that Mark Trattman (Ray Liotta), the man who runs a big time card game, has confessed to an infamous heist of said card game from a few years back. If it happens again, the mob would certainly come down on Trattman and not them. After they succeed at the heist, Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) is hired to take out the men who did it.
Killing Them Softly falls prey to really bad marketing. It was sold to us as a clever and uber-cool gangster shoot’em up in true Tarantino-style. Even the title (a riff on one of Pitt’s more memorable lines) seems like it should be on a faded worn paperback crime novel. It works better as conversation than as a title, that’s for sure. It was originally called Cogan’s Trade, as in “occupation or skill set.” That is a much better title for what turns out to be an analogy for the US economic collapse disguised as an episode of The Sopranos.
That is not to say it doesn’t live up to it’s gangster upbringing somewhat. The heist of the card game is incredibly tense. It is a slow-moving affair that leaves you hanging on the edge of your seat. It was very No Country for Old Men in style and function. There is also a beautifully shot slow motion execution that has about as much impact as any adrenaline fueled shoot out might have. And then there is the dark humor. This movie really knows how to turn up the cynic wit when it has to.
Mendelson and McNairy
The filmmakers threaten to tear down all the gangster goodwill though. Director Andrew Dominik’s previous effort, along with star Brad Pitt, was the Assassination of Jesse James, which despite its overlong run time and snail pace awarded those who were paying attention. Here, Dominik doesn’t care if you are paying attention; you are going to know what the fuck he is talking about. Not to say there isn’t some clever stuff going on. Richard Jenkins plays a mafia bureaucrat who wraps everything in so much red tape that no one can even move, and Gandolfini’s a fellow hit man who is too self-involved with his own bullshit to guarantee that those responsible are brought to justice. In the grand scheme of the economic collapse, they are great stand-ins on this smaller game board. Unfortunately, no one listens to music any more. They all listen to talk radio and news which happens to be covering the national crisis and the legendary election that was supposed to fix all the woes. Those news inserts really drive home the point in the WORST possible way. It’s like a sledgehammer hitting you in the head over and over. This! Is What! The Movie! Is About!
It is Brad Pitt who keeps everything from falling completely apart. He gives an Oscar-caliber performance, at least the kind that should be Oscar-caliber. He is steady, subtle, and complex. No theatrics here. He is surprisingly upbeat for someone so cynical. His chemistry is near perfect with every person he shares the screen with. He is the bridge between the clever gangster b-movie it could have been and the intelligent analogy it is meant to be. It is also his amazing final words (handicapped by the unnecessary news inserts) that put a stupid grin on my face. You see the cynic become the realist. It isn’t about expecting the worst; it is about knowing it’s bad and saying fuck off!
Rating: 8/10
