Even Tough Guys Have it Rough

“Killing Them Softly”
Written & Directed by Andrew Dominik
Starring Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini, Richard Jenkins, Scoot McNairy
Rated R
97 Minutes

Hey, when it’s tough, it’s tough all over; and organized crime is no exception.  Without much subtlety, Andrew Dominik hammers home this idea by framing an allegory for the 2008 financial crisis within a seedy mob drama.  That is certainly an interesting idea, and within the confines of the crime formula, “Killing Them Softly” is a well-made film with a strong director and a talented cast; but its muddled story fails to deliver its ultimate message until the final frame and by then, it feels irrelevant. 

“Killing Them Softly” takes place in 2008 at the crux of the financial collapse and is punctuated every few minutes by archival news footage of President Bush and Barak Obama ruminating on the state of the economy.   At first, it comes across as painfully obvious allegory, but I believe it is a very deliberate choice by Andrew Dominik to convey that the Nation’s crisis was being observed by everyone, even seedy mafia guys.  The problem is that the narrative is stuck in the past along with its relevance.  In 2012, what’s the point in showing an audience your thoughts on an event that was the focus of 2008? 

The actual plot isn’t half bad for a crime picture.  Two low-level thugs, Frankie (Scoot McNairy) and Russell (Ben Mendelsohn), are hired by Johnny (Vincent Curatola) to rip off a Mob card game run by Markie (Ray Liotta).  Johnny assures Frankie that they can easily pull it off because Markie has robbed his own card game before and bragged about it; ergo, the powers that be will blame him again and nobody will be the wiser.  But as these things go, the unhinged Russell runs his mouth to a guy that works for one of the bosses.  Soon enough, Jackie (Brad Pitt) comes to town to whack the two low-level guys, the guy that hired them and even poor Markie; the rationale being that if his games are to keep getting ripped off, it’s bad for business, no matter who’s responsible.  You don’t need a flow chart to discover the parallels Dominik is trying to draw here; the only hard part is figuring out exactly what Jackie is meant to represent.

All of this is handled mostly with extensive conversations containing some pretty great dialogue and in the final scene Brad Pitt makes some observations about America during a monologue that is worth the price of admission alone.  The screenplay is an adaptation of the 1974 novel Cogan’s Trade and had it kept that setting, ‘Killing Them Softly’ might have been a more interesting picture.  In its place is the more obvious and less effective setting of New Orleans in 2008; although the gritty look of the film successfully reflects the depressed environment.  In fact, the movie is full of odd-ball shot choices, with one violent sequence in particular that is strangely romantic in its execution, pardon the pun.  It is a quirky shooting style, highlighted by a great soundtrack and slow motion, making it one of the single most memorable scenes of the year. 

“Killing Them Softly” has had a dismal opening weekend and is now confirmed to be the worst-ever debut for a Brad Pitt movie, which is ironic considering the movie’s central thesis.  I suppose that is just as well, because this is not a great film and doesn’t even come close to approaching the excellence of Andrew Dominik’s previous movie “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.”  In any case, “Killing Them Softly” is full of deliberate choices and has some good moments; it’s just a little late to dinner when it comes to delivering its message with any relevance.  But at least it lives up to its title.