- April 24, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
‘Killing Them Softly’ is an ambitious and hyper-stylized take on the mafia genre. But it’s also abrasive, and overanxious to make a point.
BY MIKE CAVALIERE | ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Some small-time crooks rip off some bigger-time crooks, who call in the services of Brad Pitt, a pragmatic but strangely sensitive contract killer. This is when the whole house of cards starts to crumble.
“Killing Them Softly” is set up almost like a string of vignettes, analyzing the various levels of an organized crime syndicate. And notice I didn’t say crime “family.” Although it’s full of mob-movie veterans (Ray Liotta, James Gandolfini, Vincent Curatola), this is movie about a modern mafia, one that’s more network than community — one that’s run by an administrative governing board, not a godfather.
Pitt plays its logistical side, and its muscle. He’s a pro, and he knows what has to be done to keep business running smoothly. But he also has a heart — kind of. To make things less “touchy-feely,” he prefers to kill long range — but that doesn’t mean he won’t do it up close if he needs to.
James Gandolfini, who steals every scene he’s in, plays a depressed, alcoholic mercenary. It’s clear that, one day, he was a respected, big-shot killer. But that was then.
Now, he spends his time whining, holding back tears and trying to figure out where it all went wrong.
Maybe the best scene of the movie is when Pitt meets him at a restaurant to offer him work. Between guzzling martinis, Gandolfini talks about his wife, who wants a divorce, and about how he’ll be heading back to jail soon — his third tour — not even for something mob-related.
The scene is maybe 20 minutes long, and for 18 of those, the job is never mentioned. Gandolfini just talks, and in spite ourselves, we empathize. That’s a conflict I hoped to see more of here, instead of heavy-handed political subtext.
“(America) is not a country; it’s a business,” Pitt says toward the end. And it’s as if the whole movie, which staggers audio from 2008 Bailout-era political speeches behind most scenes, was leading up to that line.
But the payoff just doesn’t seem worth the Preach Factor.
Juxtaposed against President Obama rallying for unity and honest labor, lowlifes plan holdups, gangsters beat friends nearly to death over money and bosses use the phrase “recession rate” in reference to the price they’ll pay for murders.
None of it’s exactly subtle. And ever since the creation of money, there have been people who have made it their business to steal money, recession or otherwise. So it almost seems silly to rely so heavily on this comparison.
About 30 minutes into the film, during an especially violent fight scene, a woman next to me grabbed her husband and left. Another two did the same a half-hour later.
And this made sense to me.
I give “Killing Them Softly” credit for trying to be a more than your average mafia movie, one with brains, one that uses slow-mo to make murder look like ballet. But I could do with less politicizing. And many, like those four walk-outs, will be turned off by its content.
Critical mass
“Killing Them Softly” (R, 97 minutes)
Director: Andrew Dominik
Released: Nov. 30
*** (of five)
Mixed reviews are warranted for a movie like “Killing Me Softly.” If you didn’t make it out to opening weekend, make sure you’re OK with violence and profanity first.
Rotten Tomatoes 78% fresh (of 169 critics)
IMDB 7.1/10 (of 10,080 fans)
Roger Ebert ** (of four)
Christy Lemire ** (of four)
