KILLING THEM SOFTLY

Killing Them Softly is director Andrew Dominik’s third film in twelve years. Racing out the blocks with Chopper in 2000 followed by The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford in 2007, Killing Them Softly marks the third installment of a directorial career that is firmly in the quality over quantity camp. But what quality it is!

Killing them Softly is excellent. Focusing variously, on the three culprits behind an armed raid on a mafia card game, and the mob enforcer employed to sort the mess out. All set against the backdrop and compared/contrasted to the onset of the global financial crisis and Obama’s hopeful electoral messages. The robbers are a jailbird chancer (Scoot McNairy) and his junkie mate, played with a constantly sweaty, grimy intensity by the fantastic Ben Mendelsohn.  The card game is ruled by a dithering, unseen committee of mobsters who communicate through a mild mannered conduit in the form of the ever great Richard Jenkins.  Brad Pitt is always good value, and impresses once again in the role of enforcer Jackie Cogan, adding yet more quality to his CV. The cast is otherwise filled out with impeccable genre stalwarts like Ray Liotta and James Gandolfini, and Sopranos fans will be further enamoured by the presence and performance of Vincent Curatola a.k.a. Johnny Sac.

The violence is brutal. Flaps of skin blow off the top of a character’s head when he is shot, and dollops of blood leap everywhere. There is a crunching, rain drenched beating scene, exacerbated by a realistic, unsettling soundtrack; and as the noise of knuckles cracking on nose cartilage reaches you it makes you feel like you are present, and perhaps even on the wrong end of some of those punches.

There is also a stunning shooting scene wherein I don't think I've ever seen anybody get shot in the face look more beautiful! ‘Killing Them Softly’ is Jackie Cogan’s preferred method of dispatch. Offing his quarry from afar in order to avoid any unpleasant ‘touchy feely’ emotions. It is also the deft measure of this gracefully visceral assassination, with all of it’s hypnotising slow motion and sickening violence.

Killing Them Softly reminded me very much of a Coen Brothers movie with less overt dark humour (although there were still blackly comic moments), as you get duped into thinking incidental characters and plot threads will end up leading to integral places, and they don't. Finally it wraps up with one of the best ending/payoff lines that I can remember hearing in recent cinema. The more I think about this film, the more I like it and that is always the sign of a great movie. Highly recommended.

IMDB: Killing Them Softly