KILLING THEM SOFTLY review

Brad Pitt reteams with his Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford director Andrew Dominik in this tale about a heist-gone-right that reduces a neighbourhood's economy to cinders. 
Is it magnificent? 

"America is not a country, it's a business", quips Brad Pitt's hard-ass, cynical hitman Jackie Cogan. That's the message the film believes it's giving. That's what it thinks it's about. It thinks it's about how America has failed as a country, how the so called "American Dream" isn't as nice as it sounds. It's about how fucked up the world's gotten and how desperate people are because of the economy. The film thinks it's about all these things. But it isn't.
Killing Them Softly is a classic case of a film trying to be more clever than it really is. It's set around the 2008 elections, with news snippets occasionally encroaching the film's soundscape. It aims to project a gritty America that, despite all the advancements in technology and culture, is still a savage place. But the audience really doesn't give a fuck about that. Mr. Dominik, you can't expect Joe Moviegoer to go into the theater wanting to give a fuck, you've got to make them give a fuck, and nobody really gives a fuck about the message that Killing Them Softly thinks it's giving.

But it's not a bad film. It's a pretty great film, in fact. Brilliantly shot, with every frame oozing grit and color, the highlight of these being a magnificently shot slomo assassination scene that is nothing less of orgasmic (props to Cinematographer Greg Frazer). It's been shot entirely on a new film stock called 500T 5320, a low cost, non-digital alternative to costly film stock, and it looks fucking gorgeous. I won't go so far as to call it the future of film or anything, but it works perfectly fine, and it looks much, much better than digital.
The characters, all of them good-for-nothing gangster-types engage quite often in Tarantinoesque dialogue, talking about stuff ranging from their experiences with wimmen to the touchy topic of bestiality. It's a very talky film. Talky to such an extent that it risks becoming dull. But the dialogues are brilliantly writ and the actors are able enough to carry the film forward. These characters, here, you get a sense that they've got history. They weren't born the second the film started, they've been around for quite some while and they happily share their tales. Unlike a lot of films these days, Killing Them Softly actually has realistic characters you can believe in. The dialogues help, ofcourse, and so does the casting. You've got Henry fucking Hill from Goodfellas as the scapegoat in the story and then there's Brad Pitt, giving a brilliant performance as Jackie Cogan.

Dominik's direction is pretty good, if at times losing focus. There are too many characters than their ought to be in the film, and a few don't even matter. For example there's a middle aged hitman who, despite being a very well written character, doesn't really serve much purpose. Yet Dominik focuses on each and every one of them, often at the expense of the film.
Although it tends to lose focus, and doesn't succeed in delivering the message it thought it was going to deliver, the great dialogue and acting keep this baby afloat and I think they're reasons enough to watch this film.

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