Brad Pitt is probably the closest thing we have to a movie star nowadays, you put his smiling mug on a movie poster and at the very least a 20 million dollar opening at the box-office is guaranteed. While Pitt's status as a leading man is invaluable, to me he has always been more interesting as a supporting player in an ensemble such as "Snatch" or "Inglorious Basterds". In the new movie "Killing Them Softly", a mash up of noir meets gangster meets Tarantino meets Mamet, Pitt hidden under sunglasses, facial hair and sleazy gangster attire continues to show that even as head of the world's most glamorous family he can still pick out a good script.
"Killing Them Softly" takes place during the height of the recession in 2008, being as all the characters in the movie are criminals and or thugs its an interesting perspective to see that even illegal goings on can be affected during hard economic times. The movie is based off a novel from the 70's entitled "Cogan's Trade" having not read the source material I can't say how closely the film is adapted from it but the plot surrounds a underground card game that is robbed by two low level (dumb) criminals played by Ben Mendelsohn and Scoot McNairy and the consequences that arise from said heist. Pitt plays mob enforcer Jackie Cogan who is sent to make things right, as only a mob enforcer can. The cast features an almost Mount Rushmore of actors from mob related movie and TV projects, there is Ray Liotta (Goodfellas) as the head of the card game and most impressively James Gandolfini (The Sopranos) as a hit man recruited by Pitt's character to "take care" of one of the assailants from the card game. For better or worse Gandolfini will forever be Tony Soprano, even in this role he uses the familiar New Jersey accent from the show however the character he plays, a down on his luck hit man from Miami is so effective in his two main scenes that I would consider him seriously for a best supporting actor Oscar nomination.
The overall plot of "Killing Them Softly" is not what makes the movie a success, director Andrew Dominik has made a small, gritty human crime drama with hints of early Quentin Tarantino, mostly filled with great scenes of dialogue splattered with chunks of violence. During a lot of scenes in the background there are TV's on with speeches from George Bush and Barack Obama regarding the recession at first they are almost a distraction but when filtered in with the plot by the end it makes total sense and is almost genius in its execution. Pitt has a few scenes with character actor Richard Jenkins who plays the mobs paper pusher consigliere that truly make this point across, everything is a negotiation, the mob needs a bailout just as much as the auto industry does.
This movie was released in the weeks after the big Thanksgiving holiday and right before the gargantuan Christmas holiday, the word of mouth has not been good. I believe this to be people expecting it to be a "Brad Pitt" movie, its not. A few people even walked out during the show I was in this last Friday. Pitt has the same problem Gandolfini has, for better or worse he is a movie star and that's what the majority of the public want to see him in, "movie star" movies. Killing Them Softly is no "Benjamin Button" or "Moneyball" if you go in with that attitude I can promise you that you will not enjoy. Killing Them Softly joins the ranks of "Reservoir Dogs" and "Suicide Kings" as a movie that doesn't get the theatrical and or awards recognition it deserves but will justifiably find a cult audience on DVD.
No comments:
Post a Comment