Killing Them Softly
2012
*½
Director: Andrew Dominik
Cast: Brad Pitt, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, Richard Jenkins, James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, Sam Shepard, Slaine, Vincent Curatola
When a shady businessman hires two deadbeats to rob a mob card game, the crime syndicate is not ready to shrug the incident off, and instead hire a hitman who has a peculiar moral code. This tough and cynical crime drama is based on the 1974 novel Cogan's Trade by George V. Higgins. The adaptation moves it to New Orleans and updates it to 2008 when the American economy is in meltdown. Even the business of killing is hit by the downturn. Dominik hammers home his topical subtext with constant background soundbites where the incumbent and future President attempt to restore confidence in the American people. All of this would be fine, if the crime story wasn't so formulaic, slow-paced and boring, and the film so completely pointless. James Gandolfini has a long and meaningless role as the hitman's associate who is too screwed up to do anything. The script is incredibly misogynistic and Dominik shoots some of the violence in super slow motion so that we can see every drop of blood for the longest possible amount of time. What do these elements have to do with his thought-provoking portrayal of America, I ask. However, the pointlessness reaches its nadir in one of the most irritating scenes in recent memory in which one of the robbers drifts in and out of drug-induced stupour during a conversation.
