Killed It Softly

Film: Killing Them Softly 

Director: Andrew Dominik

Writers: Andrew Dominik (screenplay), George V. Higgins (novel)

Stars: Brad Pitt, Ray Liotta and Richard Jenkins

Plot: Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) is a professional enforcer who investigates a heist that went down during a mob-protected poker game.

This adaptation of George V Higgins’s 1970s crime novel ‘Cogan’s Trade’, begins with small time boss Squirrel  (Vincent Curatola) hiring Frankie (Scoot McNairy) and Russell (Ben Mendelsohn) to rob the poker game run by one Mark Trattman (Ray Liotta). The two men are like fishes in the shark waters as they somehow make their way to the big poker game. 

Pitt’s attitude and intimidating presence gives the sharp edge required for his character. His brevity and precision is what makes Cogan’s character appealing and daunting. Cogan specializes in killing people but prefers "killing them softly … at a distance".

The film unfolds in a succession of dialogues in bars and cars, a good many of the lines coming directly from Higgins and all of them in his style. The drama is thrilling casual and intentionally pessimistic, It takes you to a bad male driven world where humanity is dead and tough men complaining and running after money. It’s an unhappy and unsound part of the universe which very much exists.  At the same time, Killing Them Softly’ is also pleasingly anti-macho in presenting the world of gangsters as a chaotic shit-show forever undermined by human fallibility. 

Overall Killing Them Softly is a brutal and sublimely crafted thriller, elevated by a stalwart ensemble and an insightful, timely social commentary. A Must watch!