Killing Them Softly: DVD Review

Killing Them Softly: DVD Review

Rating: R16
Released by Sony Home Entertainment

This latest from Wellington director, Andrew Dominik is a crime thriller - with a bit of a difference, starring Brad Pitt.

But in adapting the 1974 novel, Cogan's Trade by George V Higgins, Dominik's brought the book into the year 2008 with a presidential campaign taking place and with the American economy facing global meltdown. Ray Liotta plays Markie Trattman, who runs a series of local illegal card games - a little while back, Trattman held up his own card game to make some cash. But unable to keep the secret, he confessed that he'd stolen from his own - and somehow managed to get away with it.

However, he's warned that if any further hold ups occur, he'll be the number one suspect...

Seizing on this, local wannabe Johnny Amato (The Sopranos' Johnny Sack aka Vincent Curatola) hires two goons, Frankie (McNairy) and Aussie Russell (Mendelsohn) to knock over the game and get the blame squarely resting on Trattman's shoulders.

But when this heist's carried out, the bosses decide the economy of the local criminal underworld (much like the economy nationwide) is under threat, so Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt), an enforcer is called on to try and resolve the situation and restore some order before it gets any worse.

Scuzzy, gritty, grimy and quite bleak in parts, Killing Them Softly is a compelling watch from beginning to end.

It's a brilliant character piece too with Dominik letting the dialogue take centre stage rather than anything else; it's dialled down, back to its roots film-making with various speeches from Bush and Obama providing the OST rather than any OTT music ever could. (Though its over-use and reliance from the director to propel the story along becomes a bit of an issue later towards the end).

Essentially, Killing Them Softly is Sopranos x Economic recession x the story telling of Animal Kingdom.

It's a welcome addition to the pantheon of crime films and is instantly a classic.

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