The aptly titled "Killing Them Softly" (2012) is a very subtle film that often proceeds at snail's pace. It is also punctuated with scenes of sudden and jarring stylized violence that suggest a different beast altogether. The two elements deftly combine to create one of the best crime dramas in recent memory.
Set during the run-up to the 2008 presidential election, "Killing Them Softly" takes place in a nameless town ravaged by the recession. In these tough times, two small time crooks (Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelson) knock over a mob-sanctioned poker game and are subsequently hunted down by Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt), a no-nonsense hitman. In his hunt for these two amateurs, Cogan deals with an unscrupulous lawyer (Richard Jenkins) and an incompetent, ineffective partner (James Gandolfini).
The film's director, Andrew Dominik, is a favorite of mine solely for his previous film, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (2007), which is nothing short of a modern masterpiece. As he proved in that film, Dominik knows how to beautifully capture death. The scene in which Pitt executes a hit in the rain is pure cinematography porn.
"Killing Them Softly" is also a showcase of the finest male actors working today. Pitt and Jenkins are fantastic as usual, but the real standout here is McNairy as a man way in over his head. You may recognize him (or you may not) as one of the Canadian hostages in "Argo" (2012), but while he was nothing more than a glorified MacGuffin in that film, McNairy gets to shine here front and center. His accent is near-intelligible, his fear is palpable and his impending sense of doom is astounding. McNairy needs to be in more movies as soon as possible.
I wish, however, that I could say the same thing about Gandolfini. The film's only bad decision is his character's storyline, which is unnecessary and grinds the action to a shrieking halt.
Gandolfini all but disappeared after his legendary turn on "The Sopranos," so his return to the screen should have been something extraordinary. Instead, it ironically feels like a bad Tony Soprano parody.
For a relatively straightforward movie, "Killing Them Softly" is surprisingly deep for the political commentary it provides. The opening scene is of a man walking through a decrepit warehouse as ironic excerpts from an Obama campaign speech play. John McCain is also given screen time and the film makes sure to structure the excerpts in the form of a quasi-debate.
The brilliance of these excerpts is how empty the two men's promises seem in the wake of the decay that the film bathes in. Skid rows, dive bars, failing businesses, dark alleyways and the creatures that inhabit them seem immune from the promises and hopes that these men wish to fulfill. Dominik himself is Australian, but he manages to capture the ennui of a dying America spectacularly well.
Another aspect of America that Dominik manages to get right is our capitalist nature, which he distills into Cogan. Cogan is a hitman by trade, but by no means is he a bad man. To him, this is just a job that he expects to get paid for. He is a firm believer that you work for what you earn, no exceptions. Perhaps that's why he goes after McNairy and Mendelsohn's two losers with considerable aplomb. Whatever the case, we as Americans have more in common with Cogan than we'd like to admit. In his final monologue, destined to go down as one of the greatest in film history, he demands to be paid, adding a few expletives. After all, at the end of the day, isn't that what we all want?
"Killing Them Softly" played last Friday at Loew Auditorium.
