It's 'odd' because it's a very 'talky' film. High-density dialogue making it seem longer than its 97 mins.
Two major departures from all the talk - the first an extremely violent and extended beating-up, the second a shooting in balletic ultra slow-motion looking, actually, quite beautiful - set to the strains of Ketty Lester's excellent 'Love Letters' .(At least they didn't choose the far inferior and unimaginative attempt by Elvis, a few years later, to carbon-copy it. In fact all the songs used as soundtrack to this film, set around the time of Obama's inauguration, are anachronistic with ironic effect)
The Brad P. character has, especially at the film's end, some very unflattering things to say about the new President's vision of America. I suppose that Brad the person put that down to 'playing against expectations'.
Much has already been said by critics about the misogynistic dismissal of women as their being no more than sex objects - all of them off-screen apart from the James Gandolfini character's hooker, who is likewise disdainfully dismissed in a scene where she is permitted to utter a few less-than-weighty lines.
I did, however, think the build-up and maintaining of tension through most of the film was successful, with all acting of a high order.
In terms of my own personal experience and enjoyment (if any) I award 'Killing Them Softly' an equivocal........5/10
I think I will pass!
ReplyDeleteThere have been a few very admiring comments, J.G., though I think they are outvoted. You wouldn't believe it on seeing the rapturous quotes on the main poster for the film.
ReplyDeleteI used to adore him, but I've grown up since then (at least most of the time, in my eyes I doubt he'll ever be as good as he was in 'A river runs through it'
DeleteI don't think Brad's EVER been poor, Jase. He's still an arresting presence on the screen no matter what the film. I'd be hard-pushed to name what I'd call his best, but he did, for me, raise the otherwise silly 'Fight Club' quite a few notches.
DeleteAs much as I like Mr Pitt, I'll be giving this one a miss too. Thanks for the insight and indeed the money saving.
ReplyDeleteI think, Jase, that if one is VERY keen on Brad, this film might meet one's requirements. He certainly plays 'quiet menace' well - like a spring coiled tight which, with just a little more pressure, might prove fatal.
ReplyDeleteI do like him - but I don't obsess when he's in any film.
No guns in my movies please. I get sick when I see violence on the big screen, which stifles a lot of movie goings i know. I like mindless fun escapisms.
ReplyDeleteDr Spo, I'm afraid I've probably been corrupted and inured towards viewing gun violence - though I do more dislike seeing it when it's produced by knives, blunt instruments or parts of the body. Maybe part of the reason is that gun violence is still so unusual in Europe whereas in American films, at least, it seems almost endemic.
DeleteI say in this blog that the slow-motion shooting looks quite beautiful - but so does almost everything in slow-mo. When I first started going to the cinema a lot in the 1960s the great criticism of Sam Peckinpah ('The Wild Bunch', Straw Dogs' etc) was that he gave violence a beauty that it didn't inherently possess. Now every other director employs precisely the same technique!