Killing Them Softly Review

Brad Pitt is becoming something of a Cannes veteran with Inglourious Basterds in competition in 2009 and The Tree Of Life picking up the Palme d’Or last year. He was back again this year, once again teaming up with Kiwi director Andrew Dominik (The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford). Killing Them Softly is a dark, gritty crime drama with a strong political undercurrent.

Pitt plays Jackie Cogan, a mob enforcer, who is called in when a poker game is held up and cleaned out by a couple of deadbeat criminals. Pitt’s job is to find the perpertrators and bring them to justice mob style. It’s brutal, violent and being very dialogue heavy, requires concentration from the viewer. As seemed to be often the case at this Cannes, the performances were first rate from the whole cast with Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn particular stand-outs as the weaselly robbers.

Of the attendees who weren’t so enamoured with the film at Cannes, many expressed dissatisfaction at the rather unsubtle economic context that Dominik shoehorns into a number of scenes. Footage of Barack Obama, George Bush and other prominent American politicians is heavily integrated into the soundtrack, via either a television in a bar or radios in cars. It is heavy handed, but for me its addition gave the film added relevance and elevated it yet further. It’s out in the UK on September 21^st, much like last year’s Drive, which was also in competition at Cannes, and will prove popular with a similar audience.

[embed width=550]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIHoFAo[/embed]