Selma Blair is one actor I normally make an effort to avoid, but she is surprisingly good in this B-level piece. Indeed, I think she was done a great injustice by the slick photo that comes with the Australian DVD of The Sweetest Thing. Her performance in Cruel Intentions was not exactly a highlight on her resumé, either. So when I see her in a vaguely appealing form here, the surprise factor is enough to make me award it a bonus point. Quite possibly, this is all that the film has going for it, as I am struggling to think of another selling point.
The plot, such as it is, concerns a loan officer who works in a big city bank. She's suicidal after discovering her lover is less than perfect and her goldfish is dead. So she goes up to the roof. Coincidentally, the bank is robbed, and she gets taken hostage by one of the perps when things don't quite go to plan. Aiding him in his escape, we follow her as she learns more about this rather charming robber with a passable British accent.
The fundamental problem here is that not enough happens in the midst of all this character development to distinguish the story. Perhaps the problem lies with the DVD I viewed the film on. The dialogue is very indistinct in the 2.0-channel mix that is offered on the Australian DVD. Sometimes the difference between a boring, uninvolving scene and one that has the audience grinding its collective teeth in anticipation is merely a sound mix. So if you're thinking of buying DVDs from the Australian market, be advised that at least indie distributors in America take some pride in their workmanship.
Tom Heaton gets a great cameo as the wounded man in the robbery, delivering one of the few stand-out laughs the film has to offer. The ending is syrupy enough to make anyone in the audience, even those with hyper-productive islet cells, sick to their stomach. Apparently, this feature was based upon a short film. The eighty-six minutes that this feature-length offering take up feel like at least sixteen too much, but I may be biased because of my desire for something noteworthy to happen during a story. The number at the end of the film is equally sugary and over-glazed.
Still, I have seen plenty of worse offerings, so I gave Kill Me Later a five out of ten. Speaking of bad audio, the theatrical trailer on the Australian version of the DVD is encoded several decibels louder than the feature presentation. And they wonder why we parallel import?
