“Killing Them Softly” is one of the more gritty crime thrillers in recent years. A movie about the mob typically lays its foundation with tough guys, dirty deals and dark environments — “Killing Them Softly” never, ever strays from that formula in the slightest, which is ultimately its downfall. From the opening scene we get a firsthand look into the economy of crime, specifically the underbelly of 2008 New Orleans. I have always appreciated crime dramas that attempt to bring noir back from the dead instead of simply glorifying violence and unlawfulness. Even “The Departed” back in 2006, for all its striking depravity, expressed a stylistic fervor that only Scorsese could achieve. “Killing Them Softly” was written and directed by Andrew Dominik, and while it comes out of the gates with commendable intensity, it never really achieves anything but a sense of dread in how despicable the mob world really is.
Cast peopled by A-listers
With an all-star cast of male actors, “Killing Them Softly” chronicles the circumstances that follow a robbery. A threesome of lowlives led by the junkie Russell (Ben Mendelsohn) knock over a private poker ring for mobsters led by eccentric wise guy Markie (Ray Liotta). Years before, Markie had staged an inside heist on his own ring and after drunkenly admitting to it later, the bosses let him off with a slap on the cheek and good faith. Now that the same job has again taken place, Markie’s head is ordered on a plate next to some gumbo and fries. However, once Russell and his gang run their mouths about their job, the mob calls for their immediate executions before dealing with Markie in the name of saving face. Notorious hitman Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) is called in, and after seeing it as a two-man job, Jackie recruits his former accomplice Mickey (James Gandolfini), who is now but a shadow of his former glory.
As you can tell, “Killing Them Softly” is as straightforward as crime thrillers can get, with disturbing, violent precision and little left for engrossing drama. With characters named Jackie, Mickey and Markie you could only either be watching a mob movie or a Disney channel sitcom. I went into “Killing Them Softly” knowing exactly what it would be, yet I had a natural sense of expectation having seen such mob classics as “Goodfellas,” “Reservoir Dogs” and, of course, “The Godfather.” These films are powerful in that the crime took a backseat to the characters, thus giving the audience something or someone to root for amid the grit and gloom. In “Killing Them Softly,” the dealings of the gangsters is the focus, almost like a cinematic documentary on 21st century mob mechanics.
One thing about the movie that stuck out was its political commentary. Running linearly with Jackie’s escapade are constant news reports on the recent economic crisis in the U.S. The film takes place in 2008, at the tail end of the Bush era and when the government was using capitalist strategy to bail out the corporations to maintain order. “Killing Them Softly” seems to be likening the crime world to the American economy, specifically how the mob uses and abuses pawns like Markie in order to uphold their own tainted sense of order. While this political relevance did add depth to the story, it came off forced and of little importance to the primary characters.
Film plagued by inaccessibility
On a whole, “Killing Them Softly” was just plain inaccessible. A moviegoer who has zero knowledge of the gangster world should be able to both enjoy and understand a typical crime thriller. What made “The Departed” so intriguing were the layers it peeled back before blowing the plot wide open; “Killing Them Softly” literally holds the same pace and mood for its entire hour-and-a-half running time. What’s more is that most of what is going on in the story is either far too easy or too difficult to understand. The intentions of the characters are never fully realized, and while this could have potentially made for an air of unpredictability it instead limited these performances to tired gangster stereotypes.
Pitt is good at making Jackie ever so close to an anti-hero, but the cookie-cutter role is doomed forgettable from the beginning. Liotta is pleasantly over-the-top as Markie, which makes it all the more disheartening to see him pulverized within an inch of his slimy life by the thugs. Gandolfini is particularly nasty as Mickey, and while he has little screen time, he commands his scenes with seasoned tough guy charisma.
I was let down by “Killing Them Softly,” even with the little I expected from it. If I wanted to be both bored and disturbed by acts of inordinate violence and stale dialogue, I’d watch one of the “Expendables” and at least know its intention was ridiculousness.
