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When my mom and I were at Blockbuster the other day, I noticed You Kill Me, I kinda remember it being released in the theater and hearing a good review from a friend of mine. So I rented it and watched it the other night, I didn't know what to expect, I didn't even really know what it was about. Now, we have such a trend in Hollywood, the hit-man comedies, there are quite a few, why not? Something so serious and scary, you can't help but just have fun with it. But for the most part, it's starting to get old and some movies are just trying to upstage the classics like The Whole Nine Yards and such, so You Kill Me is just nothing new, so it doesn't stand out. While it's worth the watch, it has some fun moments here and there, it's just that I expected something new or fresh, and the funny drunk hit-man isn't working for me.

Frank is a hit man for his "family business", but when he sleeps right through the biggest hit, due to his drinking, he's messing up left and right, so his boss tells him get sober or get killed. So they send him to rehab away from home. There he gets a new job as a make up artist for corpses at a funeral home. He meets a new friend at rehab, Tom, who is Frank's sponsor as well. He also meets a new girl, Laurel, who becomes the unexpected love of his life, and helps him out with the biggest hit of his life.

You Kill Me isn't a bad movie by any means, it is worth the look, but just trust me, it's nothing special. But both Kingsley and Leoni pull in good and solid performances that make the film worth watching. I don't know if their kissing exactly "sizzled" the screen, but it's all good, their last scenes together during the big hit were great and really pulled off well. So if you have the opportunity to see it, go ahead and watch it, it's a decent enough film with some fun laughs and good actors.

6/10

"You Kill Me" is as dark a comedy as you can get. It may also be the first artistically successful romantic comedy noir. Directed by John Dahl (best known for his indie-noirs "Red Rock West" and "The Last Seduction" and the underrated killer trucker flick "Joyride"), the film depicts a hit man (Ben Kingsley-deep in character) forced into Alcoholics Anonymous by his "family" because his drinking has been affecting his ability to kill people. Shipped off to San Franscisco to start his 12 Steps, he picks up a part-time gig at a funeral home and meets a sassy single woman with "boundary issues" (Tea Leoni-hilarious) after her step-dad dies and proceeds to start an unconventional romance with her while struggling to stay on the wagon and learn how to kill again.

The film starts off very low key, and Dahl keeps such a consistently dark tone it's hard to adjust to the cadence. As good as Kingsley is here, the show really belongs to Leoni. When she finally arrives on the scene, the film reaches a level of hilarity you weren't expecting. Her facial expressions, comic timing, and interplay with Kingsley as she learns the truth about his past are pure gold. Leoni has had her fair share of commercial successes ("Bad Boys," "Deep Impact," "The Family Man", and "Jurassic Park III") but it's in this type of offbeat low-budget comedy where she really shines. She was dynamite in "Flirting with Disaster" and was the best foil for Woody Allen since Diane Keaton in the otherwise forgettable "Hollywood Ending." Here all her comic charms are on display, and she proves that at the age of 40, she is aging not only gracefully and naturally, but with all her sexiness and innate talents in tact.

While the film goes through the predictable motions in its final act, it's the gooey goodness of the middle portion (especially one laugh-out-loud montage of Leoni helping Kingsley train for his return to "work") that will leave a smile on your face, with Leoni's luminosity as a comedic actress scorched into your mind.

You Kill Me is a cute entertainment. John Dahl, whose atmospheric noir thrillers Kill Me Again, Unforgettable and The Last Seduction fascinated me with their coziness and whose Rounders absorbs me to watch it repeatedly and never grow tired of it, directs a film that, despite not bearing the familiar climate his other films have, still has that tucked up warmth that they all have, even his lesser ones like Red Rock West.

This movie has a very dry sense of humor that works even when it isn't a punchline, which makes it consistent. For instance, Ben Kingsley, a Polish hit man who is sent to an AA in San Francisco, nonchalantly and laconically tells the group that he is a hired killer and that his goal is to overcome his drinking problem so he can return to being a competent murderer. The group, as dry and morbidly apathetic as he is, simply applaud him and welcome him with support, which very much taps into my own personal sense of black humor.

Dahl's early noirs always had a similar sense of humor that never detracted from their darkness or their moodiness or their seamless noir home video or late-night movie-going feel. However, You Kill Me is a straight comedy yet it has the same degree of black tongue-in-cheekness, thus it isn't a gem like the others. You Kill Me is a light amusement that one enjoys and passes. Dahl's direction is tight and laid back and the story is very preoccupying.

There's a sleepiness to this movie. The cast is very secure and likable, especially Kingsley and Dennis Farina, who returns to the gangster comedy like a highly anticipated guest at a reunion. Even before the gorgeous San Francisco locale, the Buffalo, NY bookends are very gladdening and infused well. We don't often get movies that showcase organized crime in smaller cities, much less the scant Polish mob. You Kill Me is not electric. It's a movie to watch curled up in bed at night or in the morning to get lost in. And it's done by one of the best craftsmen of that plain-and-simple family of cinema.

Frank Falenczyk (Ben Kingsley) is a hit-man for the Polish mob in Buffalo but the drinking is getting in the way. He is forced to sober up in San Francisco. Tom (Luke Wilson) is his sponsor from AA, and he gets a mortician job. He falls for Laurel Pearson (Téa Leoni) who loves older men because they're done testing.

Ben Kingsley is going deadpan acting in this one. He's especially proud of the precision in his killings. It's not the killing that he regrets. It's the lack of professionalism when he was drinking. It's a quirky character. He, Leoni, and Wilson are all likable people. They talk about the craziest things nonchalantly. It's a rather low energy affair. It's a quirky and cute cast, but they're not necessarily laugh out loud funny. Kingsley is too calm. He needs to play up the wackiness.

Quite uneven and rather heavy treatment of some topics meant to be amusing, but still, a pleasant change of pace from slasher or crasher movies. Kingsley is a drunken mobster somewhat unconvincingly told to attend AA by his godfather or boss or whatever.

In the end, this is the sort of pleasing yet non-filling confection of a movie which is suitable for couple to go to without compromise - or perhaps it's the perfect compromise.

It has enough guys running around with firearms to suit the men. It has Tea Leoni as a strange beautiful woman so there's some romance for the women. It has Ben Kingsley who looks 40 years older than Leoni involved in a romance with her which should satisfy something in most people, even if I'm unsure what.

Like most movies today, this one demands a huge suspension of disbelief not only about the gangster snow plow wars of Buffalo, but why Chinese want in on a piece of that action, how mobsters care for each other and if some homely old grunt can really get and hold a very hot Hollywood star girl.

Still, I'll take it over the current clash or crash offerings.