Description: A street-smart mob comedy about a hitman (Kingsley) with a drinking problem that gets in the way of his killing. When mismatched people find a common calling the most unlikely relationships are formed and explored through dead-on performances by Kingsley, Wilson and Leoni.
Amazon.com: Ben Kingsley is remarkable in You Kill Me, a comedy-drama with an absurdist touch. The Oscar-winning British actor plays Frank Falenczyk, an alcoholic hitman from New York sent by his boss, Roman (Philip Baker Hall), to dry out in San Francisco just when a new crime lord (Dennis Farina) is moving in on Roman's turf. Frank reluctantly follows instructions and takes a Bay Area apartment, finds a part-time job as a mortician, and attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Acquiring a thoughtful sponsor and friend (Luke Wilson) through AA, Frank begins reflecting seriously about his life and responsibilities, and even becomes romantically involved with a delightfully acerbic woman (Téa Leoni).
Feeling respected and loved in the early days of his sobriety, Frank does what a lot of people do in similar situations: take stock of past mistakes and be completely honest with everyone. When he reveals to his companions and AA group that he has, at times, seriously messed up his work as a killer because of booze, the universal response is supportive with only a streak of, well, moral ambivalence. From there, the sky's the limit for a hired gun with a boost in self-esteem. You Kill Me is the kind of movie that can get an audience to suspend disbelief significantly without drawing too much attention to that fact. But that doesn't mean the film's noir roots don't show. Director John Dahl (The Last Seduction) has made You Kill Me as tough as any other movie he's shot, and his fascination with human weakness and resilience in the face of unexpected obstacles enriches a wonderful story. --Tom Keogh
An Overlooked Gem! I loved everything about this "little" movie. Let's start with its stellar cast -- Ben Kingsley is perfect as the lead, injecting just the right tone of humor, regret, and irony into his complex killer alcoholic family man role.
Tea Leoni is refreshing, and obviously needs to work more. She is well-cast as the somewhat flawed, understanding companion to Frank, and also brings the perfect mordant comic touch.
The rest of the cast is filled out with veteran character actors such as Philip Baker Hall and Dennis Farina, as well as understated, equally winning performances by Bill Pullman and Luke Wilson.
I loved the offbeat story of redemption, regret, and self-discovery, set amid smart, lovingly-filmed scenes of San Francisco and, later, Buffalo. Hilarious set pieces at the funeral home and at various AA meetings bring real life and dimension to Frank's dogged efforts at self-improvement.
I happened to catch this film while flipping around over the weekend and came away thinking it was one of the better films of 2007. Go figure.
Refreshingly different "You Kill Me" is a surprisingly heartfelt little comedy, although a dark comedy would better describe it. It's not the kind of movie that will make you laugh out loud, but you might chuckle from time to time and you will definitely find yourself smiling a lot.
The story is not quite what you would expect and is certainly a fitting "romance" for today's modern life. Hey, the world right now is pretty screwed up and so is the "romance" between the two main characters; but hey, it just seems to work.
Ben Kingsley is terrific (as usual) and gives his character just the right amount of quirkiness to make this film genuinely off beat.
The movie gives no pretenses about what it truly is; a more-or-less independent film that gives a unique view of life (and death) through the eyes of a struggling alcoholic who also happens to be a hit man. It definitely isn't a "mainstream" film and that's OK. The movie serves its purpose well and is refreshingly different from what "mainsteam" Hollywood is dishing out these days.
The extras a fairly decent, though not spellbinding. Be sure to check out the gag reel for a few good laughs. The violence is pretty tame when compared to most other films in the genre, but the language is pretty intense at times, so it's definitely not for everyone.
Recommended.
Funny, Well-Written Absurdist Comedy You Kill Me is one of the movies that's entertaining on so many levels. Openly, unabashedly silly, this is a movie that doesn't take itself too seriously, but is clever enough to engage the viewer.
Sir Ben Kingsley plays Frank Falencyk, a hitman who works for a Polish crime family in Buffalo. He's hits the skids in a big way by becoming an alcoholic. His work becomes so affected by his problem that he misses making a big hit on the Irish rival of his family. As a result, he's sent to San Francisco to dry out. He ends up working in a funeral home, and meets a young woman, played by Tea Leoni, while working on one of her relatives.
Falencyk bounces back and forth between sobriety and inebriation, trying to make sense of his growing infatuation with Leoni, and getting advice from his AA sponsor, a gay Golden Gate Bridge tollbooth worker played by Luke Wilson. Meanwhile, the results of Falencyk's missed hit are devastating to the Polish crime family. The Irish gang, led by Dennis Farina, is taking over all of the other gang's turf, setting the stage for a dangerous homecoming for Frank.
The writing in You Kill Me is sharp and clever. It makes the movie enjoyable because while some scenes are goofy and ridiculous, the script prevents the movie from being a straight-up satire. Instead, the movie comes off like a odd slice-of-life populated by odd people with odd perspectives on life. The acting is solid and goes with the flow of the script.
You Kill Me is a whimsical story of a bad person who begins to make good life choices. It's worth watching.
must see This is a must see for anyone in a twelve step program. All of us who watched it laughed our sober butts off. There was no way to make this better.
well-acted dark comedy ***1/2
Frank Falenczyk is the primo hit man for the Polish mafia in Buffalo, an organization that has come under increasing attack from Greek and Chinese gangs trying to muscle their way into the area. Frank also happens to be a raging alcoholic, a condition that has been adversely affecting his job performance of late (he`s either messing up his killings or missing his targets altogether). To rectify the problem, his bosses send him off to San Francisco, where he is immediately enrolled in an AA program, the plan being that when he has finally sobered up, he'll be able to return home and resume his life as a paid assassin.
Part crime drama and part May-December romance, "You Kill Me" is a wry dark comedy that features, amidst its various other virtues, a "killer" performance by Ben Kingsley. Frank is a man who means no ill-will towards anyone, even the people who fall victim to his occupation. Killing-for-hire is just a job like any other to Frank, and he really only feels guilty when he gets sloppy in his work (usually the result of the alcoholism), resulting in unnecessary suffering for his target. Otherwise, he strives to be a professional in his job and takes great pride in his work - or at least he would if he could ever get this monkey off his back. Even his new girlfriend in San Francisco - after some initial hesitation over the whole I`m-dating-a-hit-man thing - comes to see the soundness of his way of thinking. Still, there's nothing like the love of a good, nonjudgmental woman to inspire a man to engage in some serious introspective soul-searching and to provide him with a whole new outlook on life.
Filled with offbeat characters and witty one-liners, the screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely has a sly way of insinuating itself into our affections despite the potential distastefulness lurking in the premise. Still, the "lovable killer" has long been an accepted staple of movie comedy (the little old ladies in "Arsenic and Old Lace," Dennis Price in "Kind Hearts and Coronets," Charlie Chaplin in "Monsieur Verdoux," just to name a few) and Kingsley's marvelously understated and self-effacing performance makes Frank fit to stand alongside such distinguished company. For added interest, this performance is almost a flipside antidote to the one he gave in "Sexy Beast," wherein he turned a cold-blooded killer into a cringe-inducing monster.
As Laurel, the pragmatic woman who falls for this decidedly unorthodox older man, Tea Leoni brings a great deal of believability and charm to their relationship. And although Luke Wilson is pretty much wasted in the underdeveloped part of Frank's AA sponsor, Dennis Farina and Phillip Baker Hall flesh out their small but effective roles as two warring mob bosses.
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