Review: Killing Them Softly

Screenwriter/director Andrew Dominik has adapted true crime novelist's George V. Higgins Cogan's Trade into the film Killing Them Softly, which can be described as a dark comedy and crime drama. The criminal trade depicted by Higgins may be run by mobsters and "wise guys," but there are also those who don't have enough brains to know when not to talk to keep themselves out of trouble -- or alive. 

Scoot McNairy (Monsters, Argo) portrays Frankie, a two-bit hoodlum fresh out of jail and right back into a life of crime along with his pal Russell (Ben Mendelsohn). The not-so-bright pair are convinced by Johnny Amato (Vincent Curatola) to hit a high-stakes card game ran by gangster Markie Trattman (Ray Liotta) with a plan to frame Markie for the robbery, which seems like a good plan since Markie had set up a raid on his own game himself. The local mobsters are not pleased, and assign an unnamed middleman (Richard Jenkins) to hire the services of hitman Jackie (Brad Pitt). Jackie brings in seasoned veteran hitman Mickey (James Gandolfini) to help by taking care of Amato, but Mickey is past his prime, spending his time drunk and holed up in a hotel room with hookers.

Killing Them Softly is a slow and evenly paced albeit a bit lengthy journey through the back alleys of a sordid part of America. Jackie comes across as a reluctant hitman who prefers to get the job done quickly rather than let his victims suffer. Connections to real life are made to historical political and economic events through background audio and video via radios and television, reflecting the dismal state of the economy and unfulfilled promises of hope made by politicians. Discussions between the mob negotiator and Jackie would seem just as fitting if they'd met in a corporate boardroom.

Despite all the buzz for Pitt's performance in this movie, it's McNairy and Trattman who get most of the screen time and whose characters are the most entertaining. Liotta hits the mark as a gangster who has to own up to his past transgressions against the mob that supports him, and Gandolfini takes it over the top with the right amount of crudeness and debauchery for his character.

The art design and cinematography display a bleak and dismal existence in post-Katrina New Orleans, with decaying buildings and abandoned belongings along sidewalks. One montage in particular involving stolen dog trafficking provided the best comic relief, but the humor was not enough to balance out the overly drawn-out dialogues. Killing Them Softly is mildly entertaining but easily forgettable.