>>REVIEW
You Kill Me
STARRING Sir Ben Kingsley, Tea Leoni, Luke Wilson and Denis Farrina
DIRECTED BY John Dahl
Friday, July 20
Globe Cinema
In a summer filled with generic blockbuster remakes, it is a refreshing change of pace to see a film whose moral compass is buried so deep that when it finally finds the light, the audience is cheering for an alcoholic hit man who just wants to get better so he can get back to killing. You Kill Me is director John Dahl’s return to the dark, quirky, neo-noir style of The Last Seduction and Kill Me Again. Dahl manages to weave the overplayed story of a dysfunctional hit man into a charmingly offbeat romantic comedy.
You Kill Me stars the always remarkable Sir Ben Kingsley as a vodka-chugging hit man named Frank, who is sent to San Francisco after embarrassing his Polish mob family in Buffalo by hitting the hooch a little too heavy the night before a big hit and sleeping through the whole operation. Once in San Fran, he meets the woman of his dreams, Hollywood’s favourite sassy gal, Téa Leoni, who accepts the delicate nature of his work because, as she says, "nobody is perfect."
No-frills movie making at its finest, You Kill Me relies on the performances of its dream cast (including supporting roles by Luke Wilson, Dennis Farina, Philip Baker Hall, and Bill Pullman) to tell a story that, like its characters, makes no apologizes, but just asks for a little acceptance. In a film where swearing off booze is enough to make a hero out of a hit man, Dahl’s focused grip is what prevents the subject matter from going too far over the line. It is rare for storytelling to make an audience fall in love with such an irredeemable character. Kingsley and Leoni carry the film with their unexpected chemistry and wit. Their comedic timing works the way the best comedy should, with complete unawareness and candour. Playing alcoholism, death, homosexuality and murder for laughs, You Kill Me proves that everyone deserves a second chance, if not for forgiveness, then at least acceptance. It’s not life-changing, moving or even particularly uplifting. Instead, it is a little slice of life, a dysfunctional, never fully explained, sometimes mundane, but always interesting ride to watch. |
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