Andrew Dominik’s puzzling little film Killing Them Softly was a bit of a dud compared to The Assassination of Jesse James, his previous effort, but I found this one fascinating and affecting all the same. I understand the reaction people had to its political overtones. I’d think of these as providing vague harmonies to the story, though. I’m not sure the political message is as clearcut as many are making it out to be and if what he is trying to do is tell a parable, placing the story in the time period when politics was front and center in many people’s minds and literally on most public television sets anywhere you go is narratively justifiable.
There’s little details that I loved in this movie. The subversion of known crime characters previously played by James Gandolfini and Ray Liotta, the first reduced to an alcoholic mess and the latter to a blubbering coward, was a brilliant stroke. I’m not sure what it means precisely, but I get the impression that I will someday. Then there’s the portrayal of violence that I haven’t seen in a film before, specifically the sound of fists hitting skulls. It makes it more immediate and more affecting, adding a layer of realism that most films shy away from. Drive sort of touched on the stripped-down crime genre last year, and this one continues that stream of representation in a spellbinding and baffling way that I’m still trying to wrap my head around.
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