Film Review: Killing Them Softly

Director: Andrew Dominik

The common understanding in Hollywood is that hit men and assassins are cold-blooded murderers with absolutely no remorse for anyone, they will kill anyone as long as they get paid. Finally Killing Them Softly shows that this isn't always true as the character of Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) likes to only kill people he doesn't know and from a distance so he doesn't have to be involved with any pleading or crying. He refers to this as killing them softly which means that mentally he's not troubled by the event of murder.

Cogan is called in because a mob protected poker game is the subject of a heist by outsiders who believe the blame will fall on Markie (Ray Liotta) due to him robbing his own game in the past. Cogan must dispose of numerous people so calls in his old friend Mickey (James Gandolfini) but finds he isn't the efficient killer he once was. The whole film is set against the back-drop of recession in America with numerous speeches by George W. Bush and Barack Obama filling the background, even recession hits the underworld.

Jackie Cogan, hitman (Brad Pitt)

One of the death's is probably the most beautifully orchestrated piece in terms of music and slow motion action that it could almost be considered artistic, Pitt is excellent as the real man who kills for business but is still a conscientious soul. Gandolfini is also impressive as the over-the-hill assassin who is more of hindrance upon arrival, whilst the rest of the movie does feel like a gangster film reunion with some of the other actors. There are slighty comparisons to Pulp Fiction due to the banal conversation throughout the film.

The outlook throughout the movie is gloomy, the city we see is under an almost constant barrage of rain and the places that they frequent are usually working class dive bars. Cogan's line sums up the movie's thoughts perfectly "He (Obama) thinks America is one community, it's not it's a business now give me my fucking money!"

3/4 satirical and sometimes darkly funny but just lacks that killer punch