You Kill Me (2007)

We’d like to thank Fletch from Blog Cabins for joining us on the radio last weekend and for offering up his Vault pick for the week. Without further ado, here’s Fletch’s take on You Kill Me.

It’s really a privilege to be able to watch Ben Kingsley in action. Now, I realize that sounds like some form of rabid gushing, but it’s really not. Kingsley, like Christopher Walken, is an actor that, despite his relatively short stature (5’8″) is a commanding onscreen presence.  Despite being a somewhat slight man, he’s larger than life, as evidenced by his dominating, twisted role in Sexy Beast. He’s as capable of playing a heavy as he is a broken and bitter man, like the one he portrays in You Kill Me, the latest from director John Dahl (Rounders, The Last Seduction).

In You Kill Me, Kingsley is plays Buffalo (NY) hit man Frank Falenczyk, who just happens to also be an alcoholic – and it seems as though the booze has gotten in the way of the way more than once. As such, his family (who double as his employers) sends him out on a forced vacation to San Francisco. The orders? Get dry or die.

It’s a somewhat sitcom-ish plot (that shares a “killer who goes to AA” storyline with the recent Kevin Costner thriller Mr. Brooks), but good direction from Dahl and a sharp, funny script from Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely keep the movie flowing at a brisk pace and never let you think about the somewhat absurd/whimsical nature of it all, even when Kingsley’s Frank starts dating Tea Leoni, who, at 41 could be Kingsley’s daughter.

To the contrary, Leoni is a welcome sight here. Despite not being seen much onscreen over the last decade, she’s a big part of what makes the movie work. The rest of the cast is filled out with some notable character actors, including Dennis Farina (in an all-time stretch playing an Irishman), Philip Baker Hall, and Bill Pullman (almost unrecognizable, but nice to see). Luke Wilson also plays a supporting character in the truest sense, and does a nice job of doing just that. As a mentor to Frank, his Tom is a crutch for Frank and provides some of the comic relief.

You Kill Me plays out more or less like Grosse Pointe Blank, minus the high school angst and 80s music and plus some alkies and DeVotchKa. Like the Cusack vehicle, what it lacks in believability and relatability, it more than makes up for with humor, style, and charm. Nostrovia!