The talking heads in the lead-up to the 2008 election serve as a Greek chorus to the action going on in Killing Me Softly, a cynical piece of business that draws parallels between the crime underworld and big government.
The film opens with Obamas promise of change against a litter-strewn empty lot. But not much is likely to change for Russell and Frankie (Ben Mendelsohn and Scoot McNairy), two thugs stagnating in their rundown borough, looking for the next score.
The promise of a quick payday comes courtesy of local wise-guy Markie (Ray Liotta), who runs an underground gambling circuit. It beats the dog stealing-and-reselling gig that Russell was a part of. Things go awry, as they always do, and Frankie finds out exactly how dire things are when Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) comes calling: men rarely run into Cogan more than once.
Cool and collected, Cogan likes to kill his targets up close, softly, without all that pleading and calling for their mamas. Frankie serves as his apprentice, for a time.
Richard Jenkins plays the middle-management go-between, who hands down directives from the faceless power players. Theres a hit to be made, but Cogan wont do it because he knows the guy. He calls in an old friend named Mickey (James Gandolfini, channeling Tony Soprano) more because Mickey could use the work than because hes the right man for the job. These little gentlemanly details mold Cogan into our anti-hero, a sympathetic killer. He wears a certain amount of world-weariness, but overall its pragmatism that drives the efficacy and style he brings to his profession.
There is no glamour to the business, not anymore. Cogan knows it, Mickey pines for it, but its gone. The criminal chain of command acts like any other corporation as a recession sets in: management quibbles about costs, cuts are made, imprudent mandates are handed down.
The screenplay is adapted from the 1974 novel Cogans Trade by George V. Higgins, and follows the traditional mob-movie story arc: a hit doesnt go off cleanly, things get messy, someone has to pay. But even the idle chat between hitmen has weight if youre listening, and the accompanying political rhetoric theres a robbery set against George Bushs economics speech gives the film a fiscal-cliff immediacy, unsubtle though the message may be.
Director Andrew Dominick (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) crafts a compelling, utterly depressing mans world full of seedy bars, unimpressive homes and the tacky accoutrements of men who didnt make it. Dominick gets a virtuoso performance out of leading man Pitt, who just keeps getting better.
Its just as well that Killing Me Softlys release date was bumped until after the U.S. presidential election: Pitts vitriolic closing speech is a doozy, and only underscores how much hope and change has been leached from the working class. Had enough Democrats seen the film, it just may have cost Obama the election.
