Writer/director John Dahl reinvented film noir for modern audiences with "Red Rock West" and "The Last Seduction" and although "You Kill Me" isn't up there with those spiky gems this droll macabre comedy/romance is a welcome return to form after forgettable flicks like "Unforgettable" and "Joy Ride". Sir Ben Kingsley gives a deliciously deadpan performance as an alcoholic Polish-American killer for hire named Frank Falenczyk. "Every time we send you out I have to make a call to find out if they're dead," moans mob boss Roman Krzeminski (Phillip Baker Hall). "I can't trust you anymore, Frank. Even if you are my nephew." Sent to Los Angeles to dry out the lonely hit-man finds unlikely redemption when he gets a job in a mortuary and meets a melancholy misfit played by Tea Leoni at her tart twisted best. Jeff Daniels has some funny lines as, well, let's have him tell us in his own words: "In a town with a ten percent vacancy rate a real estate agent is god, and that's what I am, a real estate agent."
Review of You Kill Me
You Kill Me
(2007)
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7 January 2010