Killing Them Softly (2012), Andrew Dominik
- IMDB.COM: Rating: 6.4 (53,000+ votes); Metascore: 64 (40+ critics)
- ROTTEN TOMATOES: Tomatometer: 76% (149-197)
- TOP7 NEWSPAPERS: 64, one 4-star review (Owen Glieberman, Entertainment Weekly)
"I live in America, and America’s not a country; it’s a business. Now fu*king pay me.“
Thus ends Killing Them Softly, the latest Andrew Dominik’s movie (Chopper, The Assassination of Jesse James), initially ti- tled Cogan’s Trade after the George V. Higgins’ novel upon which is based. The final words are uttered by Brad Pit’s charac- ter Jackie Cogan, an enforcer hired to find and eliminate the guys who robbed a Mob protected card game.
Do not try to find the Goodfellas or The Godfather in this one. You’ll only encounter shades of these genre giants and be let down by its vague resemblance to anything a cult crime flick has to offer. It seems as the majority of critics fell for that and rated the movie accordingly. For me, this point is the crossroad of my own review, for although the basic twist is indeed cri- minal in its nature, the dramatic side of the movie looms over it as everything that happens in the macrocosms has a ripple effect on the microcosms of the wise guys. Just like the world of banking or automobile industry, the world outside the law is an integral part of our everyday reality, therefore suffering equally under restrains of the monetary crisis. With the global re- cession pending, the unplanned expenses create an additional pressure that is all the greater because of the situation and none the worse than in any household with jobs of its bread-bearers at stake. Ironically, we witness the chaos in something that is widely known as an organized crime.
Amidst all that chaos, Cogan stands as the sole professional unaffected by the state of economy. He likes what he does, and he likes it in his own way. He kills from a distance, softly, emotionally unattached. Even the scenes of hard-nosed vio- lence that include him – both directly and indirectly – have the poetic fragrance. He also kills for the money, and he cannot be swindled by any man or any era. Pitt’s character is the universal go-getter, an absolute. Because of that, his remark on Amer- ica doesn’t come as pretentious, but alarming in its eerie wisdom.
EUPHORICFX GRADE:
