The first thing I did after watching Killing Them Softly was look up if writer/director Andrew Dominik were married. Why? Because in Killing them Softly, he invented more than ten characters and nary a one has a single endearing trait whatsoever. And I wondered how any potential partner of his could handle a fellow capable of writing a dialogue pic replete with conversations and characters you’d happily abandon. Of course, I’m projecting – just because a writer/director makes a movie about a two scraggly small-time losers, their asshole job provider, a weaselly middle manager, a douchebag mobster, a bevy of filthy goons, and a hitman who makes Javier Bardem’s Chigurh look like a charmer, doesn’t necessarily mean his own personal life is filled with grimy charm and repulsive banter.
To be fair, I haven’t yet described Jackie (Brad Pitt), a slick, hands-off hitman, who hasn’t any redeeming characteristics himself, but is- comparatively- far superior to the rest of the trash in the film. Hitman Jackie likes “killing them softly”, executing his victims from a distance without getting involved. He has conflicts not over decency, but over expedition and fluidity of tasks. i.e. he has no problem blowing somebody away, but he doesn’t like to dicker over the method of disposal. And this is the best guy in the film. By far.
Killing them Softly has a labored scene of Mickey (James Gandolfini) half-dressed in a hotel room discussing hitman stuff with Jackie in one direction and browbeating a hooker in another. Neither conversation was fun. Speaking of which, there are about ten too-long conversations
in the film, as if giving us a slice-of-life feel into the world of a doped-up-jackass-dognapper were necessary to make us understand exactly how much we’d hate this grungy dirtbag were he part of our own circle of friends.
Look, I know every crime screenwriter wants to be Quentin Tarantino, and Tarantino’s gift to the film world is conversation – but it’s not about the conversation; it’s about the fact that when hitmen discuss foot massages and Dutch fast food customs, they endear themselves to an audience. We feel a human connection because we too want to know what a Big Kahuna burger tastes like. It makes us partially empathetic to their awful tasks at hand. On the other hand, when a hitman haggles with a hooker over the price tag, that’s a conversation that endears us to neither person. Do you see the difference?
The background of Killing Them Softly is the economic scene surrounding the end of the W. presidency. There are numerous media at-the-time sound bytes from both our current and previous president as if to accent the woes of our underworld cornucopia with a “things are tough all over” vibe. The result feels less like motivation and more like an excuse to justify stupid behavior. Gonna rob a Mob protected card game? What do you think is going to happen? Killing Them Softly is, strangely, a great deal like another recent crime film: Seven Psychopaths. Both revel and meander in the criminal world; both open with a dognapper (again, do dognappers exist in real life? I’ve never heard of this crime outside of film). However, I feel like Seven was written by somebody in love and Softly was written by somebody newly divorced.
This brings us back to Andrew Dominik: Married for six years to The Craft star Robin Tunney. Color me shocked. Maybe she’s a gal who doesn’t need romance.
In ugly city, there’s downright depression
Even mobsters feel the pinch of recession
Without rooting cause, this is torture session
Lemme outta here; I’ve learned my lession
Rated R, 97 Minutes
D: Andrew Dominik
W: Andrew Dominik
Genre: Underworld minutiae
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: People who bring no positive emotion to the table
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Hero-worshippers
