Hit Me With Your Best Shot

The loaded and somewhat ambiguous term, "dark comedy," has been applied to rather disparate films - movies that range from the relatively tame to the relatively disturbing. Sure, you can delineate the boundaries of the "genre" (if you can call it that), but on a whole, "dark comedies" tend to be a bit of a grab bag. Perhaps its my macabre palette, but whenever the D.C. descriptor is used to classify a film, I am shamelessly drawn to the box office, even though I'm never quite sure whether or not the film will amount to my expectations. Thus was the case with You Kill Me, the latest flick in the aforementioned trend, which stars Ben Kingsley as Frank, a hit man whose alcoholism inhibits his on-the-job performance. Forced to move out of Buffalo while he dries out, Frank begrudgingly relocates to San Francisco, where he attends AA meetings, works at a mortuary, and meets his romantic match in sharp-tongued ad exec, Laurel (Téa Leoni).

Narratively, You Kill Me sticks to the genre conventions. The hit man. The corrupt organizations involved with the hit man. The humorous take on dead bodies. The impending reform. The final show-down. We've seen this before. Though the concept is not particularly novel, the film is (mostly) entertaining and the dry, dead-pan humor is well-executed. But for all these merits, the film leaves something to be desired. My biggest gripe is that the character development of the smaller roles is relatively shallow. For instance, Tom (Luke Wilson), a character who serves as Frank's AA sponsor, fell particularly flat (a narrative problem, not an acting issue). In a befuddling character choice, Tom is quickly identified as a gay man in the film, yet this aspect of his character seems almost like an afterthought; it is so incredibly incidental one wonders why it even made it into the script. In fact, the disclosure of Tom's sexual orientation is so unnaturally staged that it does nothing more than call attention to how undeveloped his persona really is. It only leaves me asking, "where's the subtext?" Dave (Bill Pullman), the bullying real estate agent who monitors Frank's progress in San Francisco is likewise poorly developed. The underlying motivations, emotions, and personalities of these characters are sketchy at best. Fortunately, Kingsley redeems the film, delivering a solid performance as the comedic "straight man" and bringing new life to the character. What's more, Leoni's portrayal of Laurel compliments Kingsley's character quite well and her equally "straight" performance works within the parameters of the movie.

As far as the cinematography is concerned, director John Dahl regularly fills the screen with saturated colors and contrast lighting, which imparts a visual boldness that is in contradistinction to the downplayed, virtually stoic affect of the characters. For my part, I found the interplay between these two elements compelling and necessary. Had Dahl opted to use drab, desaturated colors (which would have more closely mimicked the morbidity of Frank's various professions and the weight of his depression), the film would have been hard pressed to keep the comedic edge. With the visual crispness of the shots, nothing felt static or heavy.

Although I did mostly enjoy the film, You Kill Me just didn't blow me away. Perhaps I'm being overly critical because I compare it to the assassin-driven dark comedies of the past. I will say that if you're looking for a fantastic dark comedy about dysfunctional hit men, please, please rent The Matador, starring Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear instead. It's absolutely brilliant. The nuanced character development and the striking visuals will show you what you can really do with this type of plot. Ah, I'm getting excited just thinking about it. The Matador was one of my favorite films of 2005 and well worth the price of a 5-day rental. Plus late fees.