Killing Them Softly

No intro today, let's get straight into the review.

            This weekend I went to a matinee showing of Killing Them Softly, the third directorial effort of Andrew Dominik.  His only other works are Chopper and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.  Interestingly enough all three of Mr. Dominik's movies have a rating between 7 and 8 on IMDB, and all three of them apparently impressed critics while confusing the ever-loving shit out of audiences.

            Case in point: as I was walking out of the theater afterwards, the middle-aged woman in front of me turned to her husband and proclaimed "From a scale of one to ten, I give that a three." 

            While I felt a bit more generous, I certainly understood where she was coming from.

            You see, Killing Them Softly is not a movie per-se.  It is more like an arthouse interpretation of a mafia film.  The trailer itself isn't as misleading as Adventureland, but it most certainly promises you far more action than you're going to get.  I would say that almost two-thirds of Killing Them Softly's action is present in the trailer.   So if you're expecting something like The Italian Job you're going to be sorely disappointed.

            Set in a shitty, run-down city with no name, Killing Me Softly devotes the first half hour to the planning and execution of a robbery, then takes a sudden turn.  Instead of following the two relatively inept low-level crooks as they deal with the fallout, it instead jumps between a dozen different characters, most of whom are involved with an unknown Mafia-type organization, be they operatives, thugs or hitmen.

            If it sounds like I'm having a hard time describing the film, well, that's because I am.  Ostensibly it should be cut-and-dry.  Two guys rob an underground card game, then the people in charge of the game go hunting for the robbers.  It's just not that simple, and if I were to try to explain in better, I would ruin it.

            What I can say is that the cinematography is absolutely gorgeous.  Every single scene is perfect, and while I may not have enjoyed every close-up, angle or effect, I can't argue with how well-framed they all were.  On top of that, the sound design also blew me away.  I'm not an expert by any means, but the way all the sounds were integrated heightened every scene.  The same goes for the soundtrack; I may not have appreciated every song, but they always worked.

            When all is said and done, I can't call Killing Them Softly a gritty movie, but I can say it just felt real.  At times real boring, at others real impressive, but always with a strange feeling that you're only one step away from a documentary.  Hell, because of the camera work and sound design, there's one part in the film where it seems like they're actually beating the shit out of Ray Liotta.

            All in all, Killing Them Softly is not a movie that I would recommend to the everyday moviegoer.  There's definitely something there for cineastes, but it's just too far off the beaten path for the rest of us.  It's not exactly Reservoir Dogs.