August 07, 2008

You Kill Me (2007)

2/5

You Kill Me is supposed to be a dark comedy, but it's more of an indie dramedy full of lingering camera shots, deadpan dialogue, and quirky characters. Ben Kingsley plays an alcoholic hitman who is sent to San Francisco by his mafia uncle (Philip Baker Hall) to go to Alcoholics Anonymous. Luke Wilson becomes his gay AA sponsor, Bill Pullman becomes his temporary West Coast realtor, and Tea Leoni becomes his 20-years younger love interest. I suppose the premise is smirk-worthy, but not laugh-out-loud hilarious. None of this movie really made laughter emanate from my belly uncontrollably, although at times I thought to myself, "That's pretty clever."

The best aspect of this movie was how perfectly it depicted the pain of Alcoholics Anonymous. It felt like church for atheists; everyone telling you you're wrong, and being overly friendly and superficial about it. Additionally, the performances were quite good. I'm not quite sure how strong their characters were, because they felt quite dull and uninteresting except for the aforementioned character traits. All in all, it wasn't particularly funny or memorable. Don't bother checking this film out unless you really really really really like the actors. Or you really hate AA.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0796375/