Kill List: movie review (+trailer)
British thriller 'Kill List' is not for the squeamish as the 鈥榮urprises鈥� keep coming.
Michael Smiley is shown in a scene from 'Kill List.'
IFC Films/AP
Jay (Neil Maskell) and Shel (MyAnna Buring) are an average working/middle-class couple. As they chat with their dinner guests 鈥� Jay鈥檚 former co-worker Gal (Michael Smiley) and his new girlfriend, Fiona (Emma Fryer) 鈥� conflicts begin to surface.聽
The economy is rotten 鈥� tell me something I didn鈥檛 already know 鈥� and Jay has been out of work for eight months. Little squabbles and discomforts 鈥� Jay鈥檚 irritation at Shel for serving the gravy in a Pyrex measuring cup, for instance 鈥� escalate until Jay throws a tantrum.聽
At this point, if you鈥檝e managed to avoid trailers and reviews, you might be expecting a realistic family drama. And you would soon find out you were wrong when it鈥檚 revealed that Jay鈥檚 and Gal鈥檚 鈥渨ork鈥� is killing for hire. Yes, the unemployment crisis affects even hitmen, who, to make things worse, don鈥檛 have health insurance or retirement accounts.聽
Gal has lined up a three-hit assignment, which Jay reluctantly agrees to. Their creepy client (Struan Rodger) looks like a decaying, madhouse version of Joe Biden. (For that matter, if you can envision Ricky Gervais and Geoffrey Rush as killers, you鈥檝e got a good picture of Jay and Gal.)聽
They use no fancy plans or high-tech equipment. They鈥檙e down-to-earth working stiffs (who leave behind them a trail of nonworking stiffs). They do the job as carefully and efficiently as possible, save the constant threat of Jay鈥檚 nearly psychopathic anger-management issues.聽
But the early genre shift doesn鈥檛 prepare you for the even larger third-act whammy (which we will remain vague about, to avoid spoiling it). For a second, you wonder if the reels are out of order or the cast of a different movie has stumbled in from the soundstage next door. The surprise doesn鈥檛 quite come out of nowhere: In fact, it reveals itself as hints in a number of earlier baffling moments. (Why is Fiona messing with the mirror? What happened to that rabbit?)聽
For much of this second film from British writer/director Ben Wheatley (鈥淒own Terrace鈥�), the style seems tightly, even coldly, controlled, as it knocks things further and further out of whack.聽
The coldness is intensified by the sparse, mostly amelodic electronic soundtrack. But then Wheatley either cleverly blindsides us or takes leave of his senses. English critic Kim Newman pretty much nails 鈥淜ill List鈥� as 鈥淕et Carter,鈥� rewritten by Harold Pinter and then by Dennis (no apparent relation) Wheatley. (I wish I had said that.)聽
Despite its many fine qualities, a warning to the squeamish is necessary: I鈥檓 not generally squeamish, and I had to cover my eyes during one or two ultraviolent moments. Grade: A- (Rated R for graphic nudty, brutal violence, strong language, drinking and smoking.)