You Kill Me

I’ve felt for a long time that Téa Leoni is one of the most underrated actors working today. She’s great at comedy, anyway. Here she gets involved with Ben Kingsley, who is an alcoholic hit man. When the idiot drinks himself to sleep in Buffalo and entirely misses killing the guy he’s supposed to rub out, his boss orders him out to San Francisco to dry out. He’s reluctant at first, as I assume most people dropping by AA are, but eventually warms to the situation and swears off the booze. But you know it’s not going to be as simple as that, or we would have no story.

This was directed by John Dahl, who early in his career made two extremely good films, Red Rock West and The Last Seduction, and then couldn’t seem to find his next project. But this one works. It is full of sly humor. I mean, picture a professional killer coming clean at an AA meeting. Would they really keep quiet about him? Or did they just not believe him? Either way, it’s interesting, and so is the plot development. There’s good work in supporting roles by Luke Wilson, Dennis Farina, Philip Baker Hall, and Bill Pullman. I’d recommend it to anyone with a twisted sense of humor.