Disabilities at the Multiplex : You Kill Me

Disabilities at the Multiplex
with Stephen Snart

You Kill Me

Low-budget late June limited release You Kill Me is the latest offering in the line of “hitman facing a personal crisis” movies - a breed of comedy-drama-action films that create a character with an occupation as intangible and foreign as contract killer and saddle him with more relatable problems like moral angst or divorce. Recently, two very effective comedies – The Matador and The Whole Nine Yards – mined this territory with great results, one through sensitivity and the other through hilarity (Meanwhile in the world of television, The Sopranos reigns supreme). John Dahl’s You Kill Me is somewhat different from the aforementioned titles in that coming to terms with the act of murder is not the film’s central crisis. Instead, the contract killing element has surprisingly little to do with the film, making way for an unexpectedly heartfelt look at a different human disease: alcoholism.

Acting legend Ben Kingsley plays Frank Falenczyk, the alcoholic hitman at the center of the narrative. Early in the film, Frank gets too drunk during an assignment and passes out, allowing an important target to slip past him unharmed. The local gangsters he works for (led by Phillip Baker Hall) ship him out to San Francisco under the strict orders to detoxify before going back to work. He attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings begrudgingly and is loath to give himself up to the group hug dynamic of tearful attestations and respectful attention but after a few meetings he begins to lower his protective shield.

At the behest of his sweet-natured AA sponsor, Tom (a natural role for the affable Luke Wilson), Frank eventually musters the courage to take the podium and introduce himself to the group. He speaks with startling honesty, divulging his identity as an assassin without a moment’s hesitation. During this lynchpin scene, Frank informs his fellow AA members that all he’s ever been good at is killing people. Alcohol has always been a part of his life, he explains, it didn’t used to get in the way of his work but lately it has rendered him unable to perform. With solemn introspectiveness, he proclaims that the only way he can go back to killing people is if he can give up drinking. He doesn’t like the AA meetings but if that’s what can get him to stop, that’s what he’ll have to do.

The screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (The Chronicles of Narnia) has an acute awareness about the realities of trying to quit an addiction; the AA scenes pack such a wallop that the scribes surely must have attended meetings themselves. In one scene, Tom tells Frank with insightful simplicity, “You just have to realize, bars are no longer an option.” Some of the early group scenes come off somewhat parodic which is regrettable, but as the film progresses, a clear respect for Frank’s quest to stay on the wagon makes itself evident. Kingsley, whose accent is as ambiguous as the film’s dark humor, has the gravitas to pull off the stirringly effective AA scenes in a way that few living actors can accomplish.

Unfortunately, when the film strays from the subject of alcohol, it often falters, zigzagging in all directions the way a drunk might stumble home from a bar. While Markus and McFeely exhibit a clear knowledge of alcoholism, they know far less about the business aspect of organized crime. Thus, the film’s plot continually gets in the way of the character’s quest for redemption. The needlessly complex and yet inherently empty scenes concerning rival Buffalo crime syndicates adds nothing to the film other than some logical inconsistencies. A stakeout scene in a quiet house has neither the wit nor the tension of an episode of The Sopranos.

But the undeniable fact of the matter is that the film is ultimately a strong look at the effects of alcohol. It has the power to be both a harbinger for those just embarking down that road and also a motivational tool for those seeking help. As opposed to the bleak fatalism of Mike Figgis’ Leaving Las Vegas, You Kill Me offers a hopeful tale of unlikely redemption.