There’s something unnerving about a hitman who keeps himself composed for most of a film’s run-time. No, not the killings, those are assured; but a man who keeps his speech even and level, emotionless even, while dealing with thugs, hoods, and underlings. Brad Pitt pulls this off in the protracted crime drama “Killing Them Softly,” highlighted by pressured cinematography and an eerie sense of dread, where he plays a hitman named Jackie. His even keel breaks slightly, towards the film’s final sentence. His dead eyes glow alight, as they often do in movies like this when hitman aren’t to be paid, and it hits with cinematic perfection.
You have to hand it to Andrew Dominik, the director and co-writer of this film (George V. Higgins wrote the novel it’s based on, “Cogan’s Trade”) for making a movie that sticks it to you with dialogue instead of blood and guts. It’s clear that Dominik is influenced by crime films such as “The Departed” here, as well as poetic dramas like David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross.” So many conversations take place in this film and so little action. Its winning argument is that it keeps our attention.
What works about this film is its lead, played patiently and superbly by Pitt, is for all intents and purposes the narrator, though this is not a narrated film. He’s in most every scene—save the film’s tense beginning—and casts a nonchalance on the business of killing that’s eerie to behold. It’s not that he wants to do these things; it’s that he has to. He works for the mob as a hired gun, except in this town (which we learn is New Orleans, but never seen or felt) the mob is indecisive and he often has to describe to their handler (a stoic Richard Jenkins) what must be done. He doesn’t sound like a killer, but a grandfather imparting wisdom. It’s an odd play that makes this one of the more believable hitman portrayals I’ve seen on-screen. The life is not all glamor and riches. It’s tactics, and nothing more.
Jackie is called in due to a complicated heist by three criminals (Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn, chiefly) on a mafia poker game, and we see that the runner of the game (a reserved and effective Ray Liotta) has ripped off his own game before. Most think he wouldn’t be stupid enough to try it again—and they’d be right. But what’s interesting about “Killing Them Softly” is that the film doesn’t try to be a whodunnit. We know all three who ripped off the card game, and we know that Jackie knows it too. The devil is in the details here, namely the dialogue, and it’s written to perfection.
I’ve seen some other critics complain about the juxtaposition of this film’s dealings—namely mob business—with economics and Barack Obama’s election, but honestly I think it misses the point of Dominik’s film. To me, “Killing Them Softly” isn’t so much about mob business as it is about a hitman without a conscience who also happens to have manners, and it lands in an odd place.
Sure, Jackie handles business in the same cold, compassionless way as business moguls in films like “Wall Street.” But the film goes out of its way to highlight his dispassionate demeanor while discussing all sorts of ghastly things. For a movie about a hitman, there’s only about one minute of screen time devoted to killing here, and one beating that’s worse than all the death. It’s the fact that Jackie seems not to want to do much of it that makes the movie’s impact greater than a glee-seeking killer. “Waste of time, I said. Waste of money, I said,” Jackie retorts in response to the beating.
If there’s one criticism to make, I feel the cinematography is often a bit too much. It’s not off-putting or ill-fitting; it just often feels too prolonged, too slow…to something that is hard to put your finger on. Sometimes it’s great. For instance, a scene where Jackie walks through a dangerous neighborhood with a murder taking place behind him, without a glance, has excellent timing. But an assassination later on lasts for much too long and far too slowly to fit with the film’s style. This is a slow film, filled with dialogue. I feel the action should have been quick-hitting, but that’s just my opinion.
However, what “Killing Them Softly” is (a title which refers to Jackie’s way of killing from afar; he doesn’t like to ‘deal with all the emotions’) is a movie as cold as its lead. Pitt is required to act well (and that he does) but he doesn’t steal the show. Each character from McNairy to Mendelsohn to the late James Gandolfini play their parts well. The film feels and lands almost like a play. Not as much as in the aforementioned “Glengarry Glen Ross,” but enough to make you feel these characters. It’s sometimes tense, and sometimes uncomfortable, but you feel them. This might be “Killing Them Softly’s” greatest achievement.
This is a good film. It’s slow, purposeful, and bleak. Pitt is at the top of his game here, and Dominik himself was nominated for a ‘Palm d’Or’ at the Cannes Film Festival. Lovers of action and hard-hitting scenes will find little to like here. This is a pensive film, and a meditation on the crime thriller. It’s not flawless, but it works. Its character development and dialogue are top notch. And, if you’re like me, its end will leave you smiling. That’s morbid, I suppose. But we’re supposed to like films are we not? “Killing Them Softly” basks its anti-hero in intrigue and then in its dying moments lets the veneer fall. It’s done so sleekly I wonder why I didn’t see it coming.
“Killing Them Softly” is available to watch or rent from most streaming services.
