Killing Them Softly
**
Taking care of business in a rather obvious way.
FILM: Just in case you weren’t paying attention to all the background noise, this film hits you over the head with its message that capitalism is bad.
Ostensibly, it is about three stupid bad guys who inad- vertently and ill-advisedly take on the mob, and the assassin who gets brought in to take care of them.
But, every place any character goes, the radio or tv in the background is spilling some “message” about the commercialisation of the American Dream.
The excellent cast – which includes Brad Pitt and James Gandolfini as enforcers, Richard Jenkins as a lawyer type driving the action and Ray Liotta as a mob guy who bites it for unfortunate reasons – is totally wasted on a talky film with a very deliberate pace and absolutely no soul.
Language and violence is not stylised, it is just ugly and pointless and the film is not even pulpy enough to be fun.
SPECIAL FEATURE: None.
– Theresa Smith