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Film Review: You Kill Me

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By: DThompson | in: Movies |

Indie comedies are often romantic comedies, steeped in realism, heavy on the romance and light on the comedy. There’s nothing I hate more than a romance dressed up as a ‘romantic comedy’ by the insertion of five or six weak jokes. You Kill Me, a recent critical darling, is my kind of romantic comedy, that is to say, heavy on the comedy.

You Kill Me

The movie is directed by the should-be-better-known John Dahl who turned out a number of great noirish films in the late 80’s and early 90’s including the classic ‘Red Rock West’. This new film is different. Though it exists is a world where crime and murder are an accepted part of life it’s no noir and it’s certainly no thriller. Instead the film offers up an agreeably dry sense of humor more suited to chuckles than guffaws.
Kill Me stars the unlikely romantic duo of Ben Kingsley and Tea Leoni who don’t exactly light up the screen with romantic flair. That was OK by me. I’m quite sure you couldn’t pay me to watch a movie consisting of Ben Kingsley getting his groove thing rumbling, even with Tea Leoni. Instead, you get a much easier to take portrayal of an alchoholic hitman sent to San Francisco to detoxify after he passes out and misses a hit. Dahl turns extremes of weather to his advantage, using climate as a way to subtely underscore the situations of the characters. The film swings between the increasingly dire straits of the Polish gang back in snowy Buffalo and Frank the hitman’s burgeoning romance in the warmer climes of the Bay.

You Kill Me

Just the fact that this hitman was allowed to go join AA rather than immediately being rubbed out for messing up his job is an indication that we’re in fantasy land. It’s a situation the film, thankfully, takes little advantage of. For the most part the humor sticks to the realistic only marred once or twice. When Frank tells his sponsor about his “job” I chuckled and went along for the ride but when he proceeded to inform his entire AA group I began to wonder if I hadn’t wandered into an Adam Sandler film. Naturally, in the best tradition of movieville, not only does no one call the police but Frank’s brand new girlfriend seems pretty much unconcerned. Well, OK, she asks him how he goes about killing people, but eventually seems to end up loving him all the more and even joining in slashing away at a watermellon. The excuse given is that her life is “empty” but please, dating a confessed hitman? That’s a whole lotta empty. None of it would be nearly as problematic if the rest of the movie wasn’t so focused on being realistic.

You Kill Me

Aside from these two jarringly stupid moments the film is a very enjoyable ride. Kingsley gives yet another great performance, milking humor out of the most understated of expressions. Leoni is more than his match, everything she says drenched in wry sarcasm. Though this was neither what I was expecting from John Dahl, nor even what I was hoping for, I found myself enjoying You Kill Me very much. A good comedy can have that effect on you.

VERDICT: No decapitated heads, but still worth your while.

If you’re thinking about seeing this film, and I would encourage you to, you should probably skip this “let’s just outline the entire movie” trailer. Unless, of course, you’re one of those people who likes to know everything that’s going to happen in a movie before you see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOwRbbYQh9M


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Posted on July 22, 2007

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