After a card game is held up by a pair of small-time crooks, Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) is called in to find the robbers and their boss. Along the way, he has a few fun conversations that seem to last for eons of time.
I was excited to see "Killing Them Softly", based on an excellent book called "Cogan's Trade". It was set in a time (post-bailout America) and place (New Orleans) that dripped with emotion and story possibility. The end result is a dry, listless film that never happens upon any point whatsoever.
Brad Pitt is given top billing for a performance that lasts perhaps half the movie. He doesn't appear for at least the first half hour, then pops up in a brief, meaningless conversation with Richard Jenkins. The two men talk about other characters in detail. It would be nice to know exactly who was their subject. We never really find out.
A series of your usual mob character actors are sprinkled throughout, all adding conversation that pertains to none of the story and leading to no result. Ray Liotta seems to be the only exception, but his actions are what sets the rest of the events in motion, so it doesn't really count. James Gandolfini appears for a two-scene long meaningless performance. I remember seeing Sam Shepard in the trailer, but I can't recall him being in the movie.
I once heard Brad Pitt called "the greatest actor of his generation". Is Brad Pitt a good actor? I can never tell. He does not have the charisma of Leonardo DiCaprio or the unsettling ability to become a character that would embody the talent of someone like Joaquin Phoenix. Here he plays the same role he would play in just about any other movie; a confident, if not arrogant man of power. He doesn't do much. Any other actor could have played his role and they would not get the same billing.
To be fair, the real stars of the film are Ben Mendehlson, the Australian star of the 2010 crime drama "Animal Kingdom", and Scoot McNairy, who starred in a great sci-fi film called "Monsters". These two play the robbers of the poker game that starts it all off, and make more than able leads. McNairy captures the nervousness that one would naturally expect, and Mendehlson's junky appearance in the film is indicative of his character.
"Killing Them Softly" would be helped by better editing. For one, a dialogue-driven film should perhaps be marketed as such. Two, make these dialogue-heavy scenes have a purpose that pertains to what has or will happen in the story, instead of filled with references to characters the audience does not know and will never meet. Finally, the unusual cinematography got to be less artistic and more tedious as I checked my watch for the hundredth time. The camera work needs work.
This is not a good film. It has dropped three stars as I wrote this review and contemplated just how not good it is. But it could be great. And for that, I will knock it down one star more.
I was excited to see "Killing Them Softly", based on an excellent book called "Cogan's Trade". It was set in a time (post-bailout America) and place (New Orleans) that dripped with emotion and story possibility. The end result is a dry, listless film that never happens upon any point whatsoever.
Brad Pitt is given top billing for a performance that lasts perhaps half the movie. He doesn't appear for at least the first half hour, then pops up in a brief, meaningless conversation with Richard Jenkins. The two men talk about other characters in detail. It would be nice to know exactly who was their subject. We never really find out.
A series of your usual mob character actors are sprinkled throughout, all adding conversation that pertains to none of the story and leading to no result. Ray Liotta seems to be the only exception, but his actions are what sets the rest of the events in motion, so it doesn't really count. James Gandolfini appears for a two-scene long meaningless performance. I remember seeing Sam Shepard in the trailer, but I can't recall him being in the movie.
I once heard Brad Pitt called "the greatest actor of his generation". Is Brad Pitt a good actor? I can never tell. He does not have the charisma of Leonardo DiCaprio or the unsettling ability to become a character that would embody the talent of someone like Joaquin Phoenix. Here he plays the same role he would play in just about any other movie; a confident, if not arrogant man of power. He doesn't do much. Any other actor could have played his role and they would not get the same billing.
To be fair, the real stars of the film are Ben Mendehlson, the Australian star of the 2010 crime drama "Animal Kingdom", and Scoot McNairy, who starred in a great sci-fi film called "Monsters". These two play the robbers of the poker game that starts it all off, and make more than able leads. McNairy captures the nervousness that one would naturally expect, and Mendehlson's junky appearance in the film is indicative of his character.
"Killing Them Softly" would be helped by better editing. For one, a dialogue-driven film should perhaps be marketed as such. Two, make these dialogue-heavy scenes have a purpose that pertains to what has or will happen in the story, instead of filled with references to characters the audience does not know and will never meet. Finally, the unusual cinematography got to be less artistic and more tedious as I checked my watch for the hundredth time. The camera work needs work.
This is not a good film. It has dropped three stars as I wrote this review and contemplated just how not good it is. But it could be great. And for that, I will knock it down one star more.