Review of Killing Them Softly (2012) by Ross B — 15 Jun 2013

Andrew Dominik writes and directs this parable on recession era America circa 2008 through the eyes of gangsters and hitmen. Three guys, Johnny Amato (Vincent Curatola), Frankie (Scoot McNairy), and Russell (Ben Mendelsohn), believe that they have come up with the perfect crime to steal money: they are going to knock off Markie Trattman's (Ray Liota) poker game.

Markie's game has been robbed before, by Markie himself, and therefore everyone will instantly assume he did it while they get away free. What they don't expect is that the mob will end up hiring a much smarter person than normal to deal with their problems named Jackie (Brad Pitt).

The film does move fairly quickly and has a surprisingly quirky sense of dark humor at times about the politics and times these characters are living in. Pitt himself actually gives a fairly good performance as a cold blooded killer who is perfectly fine turning in his friends as well as killing his marks.

The problem is the film is very heavy handed with its connections to the politics of the election and recession that seem to not always make such sense. They are interjected into scenes in unnatural ways that do not make much sense.

In the end though it is a decent little mob picture that is good to check out.