Review of Killer Joe (2012) by Jason S — 19 Apr 2013

Coming from Friedkin Killer Joe was never going to be a straight forward film. The plot, however, is incredibly simple.

Falling hard on financial times and a hugely dysfunctional family set up, Chris(Hirsch), suggests to his Father Ansel(Haden Chruch) they have his ex-wife, Chris's Mother, murdered by a police detective Joe Cooper(McConaughey) and cash in on her life insurance believeing it to be collected by Dottie(Temple) Chris's sister/Ansel's daughter. Chris has a debt to pay off and he's running out of time. They agree that Smith's current wife Sharla(Gershon) also has to be cut in on the deal. It sounds simple enough doesn't it?

It's just a very oddly told tale. A key factor to this is the characters of Ansel and believe it or not McConaughey's Joe. Ansel is plainly as thick as two short planks whereas Joe enters as a cautious & calculating player but soon becomes just as strange as his empolyers as he takes to the young and mixed up Dottie. He weighs in with quite a creepy performance, probably his best to date.

Naturally things do not go to plan, tempers fray as matters seem to reach an impasse. There's the expected double crossing which brings matter to a head, but just as it seems to be climaxing it drops something of a bombshell almost like an Eastenders dumph dumph moment.

Strange but compelling.