Review: Killing Them Softly (2012)

Cast: Brad Pitt, Ray Liotta, Richard Jenkins
Director: Andrew Dominik
Country: USA
Genre: Crime | Thriller
Official Trailer: Here

Editor’s Note: For an alternate take on Killing Them Softly, read Ronan’s review.

Action packed and oozing cool, Andrew Dominik takes on a narrative that demonstrates how the criminal economy in America runs on a thinly laid web of trust and relationships. Hit men, mafia mobs, gambling, amateur criminals and all sorts of lies and truths are easy game for Dominik, whose previous film Chopper proved his worth as an understated director. Killing Them Softly sees Dominik return to a grittier side of crime in a more modern setting.

There’s little holding Pitt back in this role, enough creative content to allow him to provide strength for the characters he interacts with and he presents the finer personal attributes with plenty of ease.

Director Andrew Dominik worked with Brad Pitt on The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, a film that received high critical acclaim in 2007 and set up Pitt for another bout of big roles, including the Coen brothers’ Burn After Reading and Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds. Apart from Fight Club this may be my favourite role for Pitt in his career to date. Pitt is smooth and collected as a professional hit man, but also slightly and subtly unhinged in terms of personality traits, in almost a nervous tick of OCD he needs things done his way and that’s why he works alone. Nothing too new or original in terms of what you want in a cool hit man character, but a breath of fresh air to see an older actor than expected fulfilling the role contentedly. There’s little holding Pitt back in this role, enough creative content to allow him to provide strength for the characters he interacts with and he presents the finer personal attributes with plenty of ease. Pitt holds together the central narrative core and brings to the foreground the strange isolation in which he happily works.

Ray Liotta takes the next pivotal role in a cast that pulls together a standard of values inherent in their previous castings. Mostly famous for his mafia character associations in such gems as Goodfellas, Liotta is comfortably placed in the mafia juxtaposition of the narrative. A bit of a clever crook, he’s got his contacts within the mafia and makes his way by running card games in the back of his laundrette business. Not giving away too much by saying that a series of what he considers intelligent card game set ups and robberies under his instruction get him into a lot of trouble with his regular gamblers. Two amateur hit men set out to win big robbing said card games and provide much of the humour in their relationship dynamics. Their very excitable nature makes them nervous and a danger to themselves in light of their criminal exploits. Physical comedy comes from their foolhardy and lack of understanding in the world they have entered into, which appears to be much more than they can ever have imagined and not the simplified hit and run as they planned.

Slow motion sequences are beautiful, easily mistaken for HD technology as they are so perfect in terms of their set up and movement tracking, but that’s what makes it so markedly special.

A wonderful web of power struggles and responsibility entanglement ensues and structures a fantastic array of smaller support roles. One notable feature is James Gandolfini of The Sopranos fame as a hit man past his heyday, now a raging drunk with a hankering for the respect that comes with his status. Richard Jenkins provides the warmth of humanity that all the other characters seem to swerve away from, giving a balance to the interplay of power. Sympathetically we aren’t poised as an audience to initiate any side taking in regards to each characters situation in the events, so as far as character studies go it’s an interesting narrative for audience interaction tactics.

Slow motion sequences are beautiful, easily mistaken for HD technology as they are so perfect in terms of their set up and movement tracking, but that’s what makes it so markedly special. For me these sequences are the clincher for the film as a whole. It works well as a narrative, the performances are on a par with good indie filmmaking and they seem to have had a lot of fun making it, but the creativity really sets in with the couple of lush and detailed slow-mo shots. Simple things like a bullet leaving a gun, a car pulling up, or a close up reaction shot are the central frame works that open your eyes to the cinematography that otherwise passes by barely noticed throughout the feature. Compared to the openly justified landscapes of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford the smaller tighter spaces of the sets here allow for mostly intimate framings and intense detailing. They are things of beauty and are worth paying to see on the big screen if you enjoy marvelling at wonderful cinematography.

Laura Shearer

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I've a BA Hons 2:1 and an MA with distinction from Queens Uni Belfast in Film Studies. My blog is www.filmthinktank.com where you can find samples of my work. I've written for www.thegown.co.uk and www.panicdots.com as well as being one of three podcast hosts on Panic Shots (look on facebook or itunes).