Often you hear about a director's sophomore feature being a dip in form, so it was strange in Andrew Dominik's case to see that with his third and most mainstream (or at least most widely released) film.
Chopper is great and I consider
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Forward to be one of the masterpieces of our time. So here comes
Killing Them Softly (which is close to
Chopper in style) which while has subtext and a respect for the audience, just seems far to bloated. The film revolves around two low life thugs (Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn) who rob a mafia protected card game. People start pointing fingers on who is guilty and thus the higher members of the mob bring in Jackie Coogan (Brad Pitt) to sort things out.
There is a hint of odd beauty in some disturbing scenes. Director Dominik experiments with his scenes, he takes risks with editing and narrative techniques. A gangster beating or heroin use becomes strangely alluring. Yet within this complex film there is a lot elements that don't really carry much weight. Some elements are kind of pointless and the true meaning gets lost. This being the character of destructive hitman (James Gandolfini) and symbolism between the crime world and the presidential election of 2008. The symbolism is so blatantly obvious I felt like they were bashing my head in with hammer. Still it's not a bad film, just disappointing. Whatever it's goals were, it felt like they never achieved it.
**1/2 out of ****
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