You Kill Me

You Kill Me

Directed by: John Dahl

Starring: Ben Kingsley

Genre: Comedy/Romance/ Independent

Run Time: 92 min.

Release Date: June 2007

On The Web: Official Site

Teaser: Movie Trailer

Reviewed by Byron Merritt

Ben Kingsley. Tea Leoni. Luke Wilson. Bill Pullman. Philip Baker Hall. Dennis Farina. With a cast list of this caliber, one might immediately think “big budget blockbuster.” But not here. Shot in just 26 days by independent company Bipolar Pictures (what a great name, too), YOU KILL ME is loaded with powerful performances on a minuscule budget.

The script is deliciously dark and funny, focusing on an alcoholic hitman for a small-time boss in Buffalo, New York. Frank (Sir Ben Kingsley, LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN) is this drunkard. His boss, Roman (Philip Baker Hall, THE MATADOR) assigns Frank the task of rubbing out a fellow small time crime boss named Edward O’Leary (Dennis Farina) who’s encroaching on Roman’s family’s business. But when Frank heads out to do the job, he falls into a drunken stupor and misses his appointment.

Fed up with Frank’s drinking problem, Roman sends him to San Francisco “for a change of scenery” and to attend AA meetings. Once in Frisco, he meets up with Roman’s cross-country assistant, Dave (Bill Pullman), a bizarre real estate agent who gets Frank into a nice apartment, a job as a mortician’s assistant, and into AA. Once at an AA meeting, Frank quickly leaves, feeling uncomfortable about revealing any of his weaknesses. But he meets up with Tom (Luke Wilson, MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND) and the two form a tenuous friendship based on trust (Tom eventually becomes Frank’s AA sponsor).

While at work in the funeral home, Frank meets Laurel (Teo Leoni), a strangely attractive woman with zero verbal filters. The two soon hone out a relationship built on brutal honesty and each other’s desires to not be alone.

Once Frank starts drying up, word comes to him of a hit placed on his family back home, and he has to decide whether to return to Buffalo and killing, or to stay in San Francisco and create a new life for himself with Laurel. Strangely enough, both become an option by the ’s end.

This is one of the quirkier films you’ll ever see. Ben Kingsley’s performance is outstanding as a confused and conflicted hitman who must decide what’s worse: killing or alcoholism. But what seems worse to Frank (Kingsley’s character) is killing poorly due to alcoholism (“I had to chase a guy fifteen blocks once in order to kill him. He knew why I was there. That’s just wrong.”) It’s this intellectual yet disturbingly funny dialogue that fills the story and, trust me, it is funny.

Most surprising is Bill Pullman’s portrayal of Dave, the dorky real estate agent who believes himself to be some sort of “boss” within San Francisco. You’re not sure how to take him throughout the entire length of the film. Is this guy for real? Pullman does a fantastic job keeping you guessing.

The only complaint would be the sexual attraction between someone of Kingsley’s age and Leoni’s. Obviously Kingsley is old enough to be Leoni’s father. The chemistry seems a bit forced, but the dialogue often helps viewers forget this as it plunges ahead, making one laugh and giggle at the crazy things coming out of characters’ mouths.