Killing Them Softly

Andrew Dominik's screenplay and direction of George V. Higgins' novel 'Cogan's Trade' may have to search for the right audience because it is a complexly designed and performed piece of cinema. But for those who are willing to step into a different stratosphere of combining gangland antics and brutality with a strong subtext of commentary on the current status of American political system - a film packed with some top notch performances by a varied set of actors - then spend some time with KILLING THEM SOFTLY. The title comes from the main character professional hit-man Jackie Cogan who confides that he likes to carry out his missions without getting to close to the victims so that he doesn't have to hear their whining and pleas and crying etc as he kills them - distance allows him to kill them softly.

We learn that Markie (Ray Liotta) some years back made a lot of money by raiding a gambling game. Since it worked before, odds are that it will work again now that Markie is out and in the mob controlled gambling scene. Some amateurs (Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn, both losers on heroin) are hired by Johnny Amato (Vincent Curatola) to stickup a mob protected card game, causing the local criminal economy to collapse. Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) is an enforcer for the Mob and is called in by an unnamed driver (Richard Jenkins) who is brokering the deal to track them down and restore order to the local criminal economy. Cogan demands that an assistant Mickey (James Gandolfini) be brought in, but when Mickey arrives in town he is far more interested in prostitutes and staying drunk than doing his job. How the final plan to correct the problem is carried out is the rapid-fire sequence of the last part of the film and to spoil it would be a shame.

In many ways the movie is a recreation of the 2008 financial crisis - each character represents a different contemporary type (e.g., Richard Jenkins is the American government, etc). Under much of the dialogue for the film is the presence of political television shows with Bush and Obama talking, underlining the 2008 financial crisis, and that adds to the veracity of the story. The actors are excellent, the action is a bit on the gory side, but the seemingly endless and roaming dialogue holds a lot of viewpoints that are salient and make these underbelly jerks credible. You simply have to be in the mood for this one.

Grady Harp