It’s been five years since Brad Pitt teamed with director Andrew Dominik for the superb western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and Killing Them Softly finds the duo reunited for another contemplative outlaw story, this time about mafia enforcer Jackie Cogan (Pitt), hired by a twitchy middleman (Richard Jenkins) to track down the two lowlifes (Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn) that knocked over an underworld card game and threw the local mob economy into chaos.
The action scenes, which are few and far between, are beautifully and viscerally realized, but most of the film plays out in extended dialogue sequences, and the plot takes a backseat to themes of frustration and economic inequality. It seems that even wiseguys are affected by the poor state of the nation, with bosses trying to skimp on expenses and hitmen eager to take a job for less than the usual wage, because at least it’s a job. No one conveys this desperation better than Mickey (James Gandolfini), a past-his-prime hitman whose glassy-eyed tale of marital problems juxtaposes harshly with his affinity for booze and prostitutes.
Dominik cleverly frames his narrative against the backdrop of the 2008 Presidential campaign, with billboards for McCain and Obama littering the landscape, and every scene that takes place in a bar or restaurant permeated by audio clips from one speech or another. A biting social commentary on the failed American dream, Killing Them Softly is an atypical crime saga, with thieves, killers and con men struggling to survive right along with the rest of us.