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USA 2012
Directed by
Andrew Dominik
97 minutes
Rated MA

Reviewed by
Andrew Lee
3.5 stars

Killing Them Softly

Synopsis: When two street punks (Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn) knock over an illegal card game, the mob calls in Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) to punish those responsible and restore order and profitability to the business.

Last year, reclined on a beach in Fiji, I sat down and read through a stack of Donald Westlake’s Parker novels. Well, Richard Stark’s novels if you want to get picky about pseudonyms. The second novel in the series, The Man With The Getaway Face, is striking for the long setup, ellipsed pay-off, and uneventful finale. But it’s a great read. The setting, the build-up, the character interplay, all of it is highly entertaining. It’s just not explosive in the same way as The Hunter, the first Parker novel. I mention this mainly because Cogan’s Trade, the 1974 novel by George V. Higgins which provides the basis for Killing Them Softly feels like it belongs on the same street of crime fiction. The actions themselves are not as interesting as the people and there’s no great interest in a traditional dramatic structure. Andrew Dominik’s adaptation is equally uninterested in pushing a traditional narrative. But if you love moody crime fiction, you’ll quite enjoy this film.

The original title of the film, Cogan’s Trade, as with the novel, pretty much sums up the entire film. Jackie Cogan is a mob enforcer. That’s what he does. And what we’re going to see is him going about his business with casual efficiency. His method seems to mainly involve sitting in bars, talking to people, and gently hinting that he’s a completely cold-blooded killer to get the desired effect. He is, of course, a ruthless killer and the way he despatches his targets is filmed with impressively graphic élan by Dominik who is reteaming with Pitt, with whom he worked on The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford in 2007. A director with a fondness for crime stories, Dominik is best known here for his first film, Chopper (2000).

Less successful is the revised setting, now placed against the backdrop of the 2008 US Presidential campaign. Allusions abound to the unstable financial system, collapse of confidence, the need for measures to be taken to restore balance, the conflict between selfishness and community in the war for America’s soul, etc. It’s blunt, direct stuff that’s amusing but rather obvious. I think the only thing missing was a Chinese hitman getting hired because he could do the job cheaper. But that aside, Killing Them Softly is an enjoyable crime drama that just cruises along and makes you think of old black and white films that were content to just let their characters move through a situation rather than make a big deal out of it.

 

 

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