Killing Them Softly

Killing Them Softly is cool; yet unoriginal. Written and directed by Andrew Dominik, Softly chronicles the life and times of a group of criminals affected by both sides of a robbery.

Mark “Markie” Trattman (Ray Liotta) runs an illegal gambling house. It gets robbed and then mob affiliates go looking for “the kids” that did it. There’s nothing new here, but the cinematography and individual actors’ performances make this film better than it could have been.

Oh yeah, there’s also a lot of political undertones laced throughout the movie, but it doesn’t resolve until the end, so we won’t address it until it is fitting.

Let’s get one thing straight: not unlike this film, Brad Pitt is cool. He’s always going to be cool. Even when he’s on his deathbed, he will look like he’s in his early forties and his hair will perfectly adapt to any style he chooses.

Pitt’s character, Jackie Coogan, has many similar traits to the many Brads we have seen on the silver screen (most notably, Dusty from the Ocean’s series). He dresses well, is sarcastically clever and always seems to be eating, smoking or drinking.

Coogan serves as a liaison between the suits and the guys that get their hands dirty in an effort to make sure that appearances are kept up and the right blood is spilled in the aftermath of the poker game robbery. His constant determination to kill people in the most humane way possible is inkeeping with the movie’s title. Lots of witty lines from Coogan as well as very graphic depictions of the murders ensue.

The first job that must be handled is the “questioning” of Liotta’s character Marky Trattman to ensure that he didn’t set up his own game. Though he doesn’t get killed (yet), the audience sees every element of the beating, including both the frustration of the thugs not getting the answer they want as well as Trattman suffering, bleeding and vomiting.  Though they are a bit over the top, Dominik’s style of capturing all of the violence in the film were impressively done and were definitely some of the highlights. You could feel every punch delivered to Trattman’s body, which is also a testament to Liotta’s performance.

The two aforementioned “kids” were both played exceptionally well by somewhat lesser-known actors. Ben Mendelsohn is awesomely disgusting as the dog-stealing, non-bathing lowlife that serves as Scott McNairy’s sidekick. Aussie native Mendelsohn is perpetually sweaty and almost always on the verge of passing out due to drug use and literally no sleep – “I’ve been up for a week!”

I was unable to pinpoint exactly where McNairy’s accent was from, but it became a little obnoxious about an hour into the film. His performance was strong, but paled in comparison to Mendelsohn’s. Because the two were often together onscreen, McNairy seemed less genuine in his performance by default of being in the same frame as Mendelsohn.

Though he does no actual killing, James Gandolfini’s character isn’t at all outside of his comfort zone. He plays an alcoholic version of Tony Soprano, and he does it well. Though initially hired to kill Trattman, he gets fired from the job for being drunk all the time, forcing Coogan to have to step up and do the hit himself; softly, of course.

Trattman’s death is by far the standout scene of Softly. Done in slow motion, the visual of the glass car window shattering as the first bullet penetrates the surface is beautiful. The amount of blood that erupts from his skull is a little campy, but all of that red serves an aesthetic purpose in the overall image.

Mendelsohn’s character gets arrested, so only two murders are left on Coogan’s hands. In a swoop of Pitt’s signature charisma, Coogan plays “good cop” and gets his final hit (McNairy’s character) to serve as the driver for his second-to-last kill. After the puts two shotgun shells into a man named Squirrel who set up the robbery, Coogan kills McNairy unceremoniously in the driver’s seat of his car. No dramatic slow-mo’s here.

Throughout the entire film, televisions are conveniently on in almost every scene broadcasting various speeches and debates from both Barack Obama and George W. Bush. The clips serve as political punctuations. It isn’t until the very end that Coogan addresses one of Obama’s speeches and criticizes the concept of considering America a “community of united people.”  His cynicism climaxes after a money dispute with his high-level mob contact.

The final line of “Now give me my fucking money!” echoed throughout the Lumiere as the credits began to roll.

Writer: Andrew Dominik (Screenplay), George V. Higgins (Novel)

Director: Andrew Dominik

Producer: Plan B Entertainment

Main Cast: Brad Pitt, Ray Liotta, James Gandolfini

Running Time: 100 min.