Review of Killshot (2008) by Justin F — 28 Mar 2009

Work by Elmore Leonard is always worth the time, adaptations over the years have met with varying degrees of success but the quality of the source material is rarely disputed. Leonard gives you great stuff to work with it's up to the filmakers to see if they can spin gold with it. Here John Madden tries to take all the elements on board, Rourke as the aging hitman staring the end of his career in the eye, his partner Ritchie Nix a borderline sociopath looking for the next rung up the criminal ladder, and the married couple they cross paths with, 2 people who might be moving in different directions emotionally. It's classic Leonard, characters introduced in transition, and stress is applied.

Rourke is suitably intimidating as Blackbird, the indian hitman of the piece. He's perfect for the world weariness of the character, while never losing track of the fact, that this is man who is and always has been, a bad seed.

Levitt plumbs natural born killers territory for his turn as Nix, he's wonderfully unlikeable, all scrawny anger, and perpetually in the older hitmans shadow.

Lane and Jane have good chemistry, this is a couple that are a long way from where they used to be happiness wise, but there's an easy connection that initially makes you root for them and their predicament.

So, characters are good, the director wants to explore all the angles, so why is it the film falls short of taut thriller into a merely competent one? Well, it's a shame but even with all the tools to hand, the film keeps pulling it's punches. Rourke could be as formidable a character as Anton Chigurgh, but is never allowed to travel to the extremes the character needs to be. The thumbscrews are never applied to our protagonists, the sense of abandonment, of being used as bait, and ultimately that they need to take matters into their own hands, is never capatalised on, so as a result the emotional heart and tension of the film is diminished.

It's hard because Killshot does nail it in more than a few scenes. Rosario Dawson breaks your heart as a classic Leonard side character, and the voice over monolgues to Rourkes cold, quiet character are dialogue bliss, but in the end too many facets are unexplored or worse unfulfilled.

Killshot doesn't end up on the bottom of the heap next to "the Big bounce" in Leonard adaptations, but neither does it climb the dizzy heights of Rum Punch / Jackie Brown or Get Shorty. There's great scenes to enjoy, and some very noteable performances inspite of being held back, but the total package is lacking.