Guys in cars, talking. Guys in bars, talking.
And, now and then, as a kind of punctuation to all that chat, guys being beaten bloody and shot dead.
That’s the George Higgins way. Dialogue is king in his books: hard-edged, cynical, revealing.
And that’s how things play out in “Killing Them Softly,” the best adaptation of a tale by the late hardboiled crime-fiction writer since “The Friends of Eddie Coyle.”
In fact, it’s the only adaptation of a Higgins book since “Eddie” in 1973. It’s been worth the wait.
The guys doing the talking in “Killing,” based on Higgins’ “Cogan’s Trade,” are, for the most part, lowlife screw-ups. And, fittingly, they talk too much. In “Killing,” two scroungy dim bulbs (Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn) brag about robbing a mob-sponsored card game. Blabbermouthitis in these circumstances is a fatal condition. It brings an angel of death down upon them.
This particular flint-eyed angel is a mob enforcer named Jackie Cogan. Played by Brad Pitt with a scruffy goatee and a greaser-like slicked-back ’do, he’s a practical-minded man of many well-considered words.
When suspicion falls on a loose-lipped loser played by Ray Liotta, Jackie’s employers want him beaten, not killed. Jackie disagrees.
The guy knocked over a card game once before, and even though he didn’t do a second job, he now needs to be eliminated as a warning to others, says Jackie.
So why put him through a beating when he’s going to be killed in the end anyway? Wasted effort. Jackie is all about efficiency.
The best conversations in “Killing” are between Jackie and a mob go-between played by Richard Jenkins. Jenkins’ character is a bean counter who questions the need for two shooters to handle this particular job. Jackie insists the job requires a second triggerman. Well, have him fly coach, counters Jenkins.
Writer-director Andrew Dominik – who last worked with Pitt on the brilliant but little-seen “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” – expertly captures the flavor of his Higgins source material.
But he’s set the story during the 2008 presidential campaign, with President Bush and candidate Obama on the radio and TV in the background talking about the financial meltdown as a device to deliver an over-obvious critique of American culture and politics.
Jackie mocks Obama’s soaring, we’re-all-in-this-together rhetoric by telling Jenkins, “I’m living in America and in America, you’re on your own. America’s not a country. It’s just a business. Now (expletive) pay me.”
Ouch. ‘Killing Them Softly’
H H H 1/2 I
Cast: Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, Richard Jenkins, Ben Mendelsohn, Scoot McNairy
Director: Andrew Dominik
Running time: 1:37
Rated: PG-13; violence, language, drug use
JOIN THE DISCUSSION | Register here
We welcome comments. Please keep them civil, short and to the point. ALL CAPS, spam, obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Thanks for taking part — and abiding by these simple rules. A thorough explanation of rules of conduct can be found in our Terms of Service. If you have any questions, including why your comment may not be showing immediately after you submit it, be sure to visit the commenting FAQ.