Killing Them Softly, written and directed by Andrew Dominik and starring Brad Pitt, is a brutal noir crime flic and black comedy that aims at taking down the American dream with a shotgun. Beware: if you're unfamiliar with the crime talk and gangster slang of the East Massachusetts and New Jersey areas, then you may need to walk into this movie with a dictionary or a smart phone Frankie (Scoot McNairy) and Russell (Ben Mendelsohn, hired by a local wise-guy, plan to knock off a local underground card game. To pull off the perfect score, they plan to set-up local nice guy and criminal screw-up Markie (Ray Liotta), but things go awry in a comedy of unintended consequences. Slick and unforgiving mob enforcer Jackie Coogan (Pitt) is hired by a nameless criminal organization to track down Frankie and Russell who have unwittingly closed-down the economy of underground gambling in the area. All the while Jackie meets with unnamed mob boss representative (Richard Jenkins) who is squeamish about violence and encourages his partner Mickey (played by the Soprano's James Gandalfini) to get serious about the business of killing. With its ensemble cast, noir and muddy cinematography, and gritty heist sequences Killing Them Softly is an intensely stylish movie, but often this film is often more about style for style's sake rather than delivering a story. The meat of Killing Them Softly is the in the long-sequences of sardonic dialogue between mobsters. Long monologues by Jenkin's about the bumbling nature of his criminal bosses or by Coogan about his partner's criminal past are a delightful to hear. But these stretches of talk mire the pacing of the flic, and it seems that Dominik is trying to add dressing and flair onto what is essentially a minimalistic crime story. Throughout the movie we overhear the political speeches of the 2008 financial crisis whether from George W. Bush or the then campaigning Barak Obama, and Dominik is matter-of-factly trying to send a message, but this technique feels overly clever and obscure. Is Dominik saying that Coogan and his criminal organization are like the banks and firms that caused the crisis? And if so, why does Dominik feel it is necessary to superimpose this already-old political message over the already potent source material (the flic was adapted from Richard Higgins' gritty novel Coogan's Game). Pitt plays Coogan with cool sarcastic ease, but his performance is more an amalgam of previous roles than anything original. In fact, the movie's poster beckons: come watch this flick if you want to watch Pitt stylishly wield a sawed-off shotgun. While Killing Them Softly, is at times a thrilling movie, the overdone, overly styled direction of the film ultimately make it a difficult and slow watch. Bikyanews.com
