USA Today
3 stars out of 5 -- "[Dahl] manages to get restrained performances from his stars here, particularly Kingsley and Leoni....Leoni gives her best performance since 1996's FLIRTING WITH DISASTER." 06/22/2007 p.6DNew York Times
"[T]he chromatically reduced palette nicely echoes the stark inner and outer worlds of Mr. Kingsley's character, Frank Falenczyk..." 06/22/2007 p.E10 Box Office
"Leoni displays her comic acumen in a noir setting...[and] Kingsley brilliantly limns a sympathetic variation on the Mephistophelean persona he nailed in SEXY BEAST." 06/22/2007 p.64-65 Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t's eccentric and funny....[Kingsley's] sparky relationship with a deliciously tart Leoni is priceless." 01/01/2008 p.54 Uncut
4 stars out of 5 -- "The direction from THE LAST SEDUCTION's John Dahl is perfectly deadpan, fully exploiting a crafty, clever script." 01/01/2008 p.127 Sight and Sound
"Dahl keeps the pacing brisk....He also encourages some fine performances from his talented cast. Kingsley shows a deft comic touch..." 02/01/2008 p.89 Reel.com 7 of 10
A lot of talented actors come together in the gangster comedy You Kill Me, but they're so underused it's, well, criminal. Even the incomparable Ben Kingsley, who stars as Frank Falenczyk, an alcoholic hit man for Buffalo's Polish mob sent by his angry boss (Philip Baker Hall) to dry out in San Francisco, never seems quite sure how to play his quirky role. On the other hand, maybe it's just the part itself, as written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, which feels inconsistent and unsatisfying. It's another case of plopping an audience into someone's very screwed up life without much explanation as to how he got there. In a post-Tony Soprano world, we're used to our gangsters having more specific psychological underpinnings than the what-you-see-is-what-you-get Frank. Though, in many ways, Frank is more down to earth than most parts Kingsley usually plays, the 60-ish actor may just be too mature--and too innately wise--to be fully convincing; it's a sympathetic performance, but he's ultimately miscast...Better cast, but even less dimensional, is co-star Tea Leoni as Laurel, an attractive woman Frank meets at the funeral home where he works as part of his rehab...The considerable age difference between the two doesn't help either. - Gary Goldstein
|
