YOU KILL ME

US, 2007, 92 minutes, Colour.
Ben Kingsley, Tea Leoni, Luke Wilson, Philip Baker Hall, Bill Pullman, Dennis Farina.
Directed by John Dahl.

A film on AA, quite a number of meetings – and more.

During the 1990s, director John Dahl made a number of effective thrillers, Red Rock West, The Last Seduction, Unforgettable. He has gone back to this kind of thriller – except that he has made it comical.

Ben Kingsley looks particularly sinister as a hit man – but then sleeps through his hit because he has an alcohol problem. His boss sends him to San Francisco to get help, take an ordinary job while he attends AA meetings. Bill Pullman is his rather sleazy Californian connection. Luke Wilson is an AA sponsor who works on a bridge toll booth and Tea Leoni is a lonely and sympathetic woman whom he meets at his job – preparing corpses for burial.

The plot and the film are slight but it is all quite well done and has good performances and dialogue, especially from Kingsley who is persuasive as the hitman with a vocation from earliest days, but who sees the light and is earnest in reform (of his drinking, that is).

There are some mob sub-plots involving Philip Baker Hall and Denis Farina as ageing bosses.

Not one for the memory, but an offbeat pleasure while you watch.

1.An entertaining film? Blend of gangster drama and comedy?

2.An AA comedy?

3.The title, literal, figurative?

4.The plausibility of the plot, comic exaggeration? A moral and amoral world?

5.The New York mobsters, Ramon and his family, his son, the henchmen? Tough, rivalry with the O’Learys? The Asian connections? The leaders getting old? His relying on his nephew Frank, the hit-man, his mission, missing out on O’Leary? His speech to him, sending him to San Francisco? His decisions about the future, meeting O’Leary?, the stances? The shootout, hitting his son to save him, his own death?

6.The O’Learys? and the Irish background, the mobs, tough? Edward O’Leary? and his leadership? Confronting Ramon? The shooting? The Asians?

7.Frank, Ben Kingsley’s presence and performances, his dedicated life as a hit-man, his accuracy, his drinking, the work having no effect on his moral stances? Asleep, the morning after, the consequences, going to San Francisco, having to get a job, having to go to AA meetings?

8.Dave, the San Francisco connection, sleazy type, fixing up the house, getting the job for Frank, the contract and the money developments, wanting a hit?

9.Frank, his work with Doris, the job, preparing the corpses, his being good at it? The various funerals, people’s gratitude? The Irish wake, his having to drink? The effect? Meeting Laurel at work?

10.The AA meetings, his reaction, his scepticism, change? Meeting Tom, Tom as a character, his help? Their discussions at the bridge booth? Tom as a sponsor? Frank and his telling the AA meeting all about his work as a hit-man? The reactions? Carrying on the meeting as if nothing had happened?

11.Laurel, her stepfather, her reaction to Frank, talk, her loneliness, the phone calls, going out with Frank, the bonds, the relationship, the meal, his drinking, the truth? His training her with guns and knives?

12.The trouble in New York, his return, the confrontation with O’Leary?, shooting him?

13.The AA meeting, Frank being a target, Laurel accosting the killer, taking him?

14.The later happy ending, Frank, Tom, Laurel, friendship, love and a future?