Directed and written for the screen by Andrew Dominik (“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”) and with an all star cast made up of Brad Pitt, Ray Liotta, Richard Jenkins, James Gandolfini, and Sam Shepard – “Killing Them Softly” does not live up to the hype. Produced by Brad Pitt, the Palme d’Or nominated film’s trailer is better than the actual film itself. The trailer is even deceiving when compared to the actual tone of the entire film right from the get go.
Taking place during the McCain/Obama presidential race, three idiots rob a card game run by Markie Trattman (Liotta). When Jackie Cogan (Pitt) is hired to settle everything by correcting the underground economic crisis, people start dying. The whole story can be explained in 5 minutes, and could have been an hour shorter – it has back to back scenes of extensive vulgar dialogue which seems to try to out do Tarantino.
Its not exactly worth the price of admission, maybe a redbox rental. Overall the film is barely decent, with more nays than yays with audiences. The real strong point of the film is its incredible intensity, with brutal violence that is a little hard to watch. It really engages its audience, but is just too much over all. Brad Pitt has finally invested in a film that is not only disappointing, but also is full of awful, dirty,and full of unlikeable characters. That might not be a promising sign for the upcoming film “World War Z” that has been changed from the book pretty drastically, which is getting some complaints.
It could be worth a look into the 1974 novel on which the film is based, Cogan’s Trade by the late George V. Higgins for comparison between the two. The film has severely underplayed political commentary which helped its appeal a little bit, but is covered by sex talk and pervasive language. Although the film does have a certain something to it that allows us to keep watching, until its sudden end.
“Killing Them Softly” is now playing in theaters everywhere.
