Frank Falenczyk (Ben Kingsley) is a hitman with a severe drinking problem. While this sounds like the set-up for a joke, it is more or less the plot of John Dahl’s newest film You Kill Me. After botching a hit on a rival mobster (Dennis Farina) because he passed out, his boss and uncle Roman (Phillip Baker Hall) sends him to San Francisco (?) to dry out. While there, Frank gets a job as an undertaker’s assistant, meets romantic interest Laurel (Tea Leoni) and Tom (Luke Wilson), a Golden Gate Bridge toll collector who agrees to be his Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor. As Frank reveals his past to his new friends, while avoiding old enemies, hilarity ensues.

Or rather, I wished that hilarity ensued. Having cut his teeth on such neo-noir classics as Red Rock West and The Last Seduction, director John Dahl tries to mine that vein in an effort extract black comedy gold. However, the results in You Kill Me are mixed to non-existent. By attempting to make a dark joke out of everything from mob warfare to substance abuse, Dahl neuters his subjects and themes, rendering them neither funny, dangerous nor transgressive. Things that he plays for laughs come across as tone-deaf, and things that he plays to heighten the drama never convince.

Do you know how sometimes when you watch a movie and being unable to accept a simple plot point makes it difficult to go along with the rest of the film? Well, I made it as far as the first reel, when Frank blows his big hit. If you were a mob boss, and you knew that your button man had a problem with the sauce, do you send him to take out your most feared rival? Do you think that maybe you just might, if you decided to use this guy after all, decide to send some back-up? This logic vacuum was almost impossible for me to overcome, but I soldiered on until Frank decides to pull a bit of intimidation on a city commissioner wearing nothing but his boxer shorts and undershirt. That put the kibosh on any further benefit of the doubt on my part.

Playing his drunken hired gun with the deadest of deadpans, Kingsley doesn’t seem to be terribly interested in the proceedings, engaging in under-emoting so severe, that he makes Marlon Brando look like Gilbert Godfried. Whether he’s trying to turn on the charm with Tea Leoni, or confronting rival mobsters, Sir Ben registers the same infinitesimal emotional content. I realize that he’s trying to play an emotionally distant character, but I had a hard time buying it. Wearing a wardrobe that looks like Jean Reno’s hand-me-downs from Leon: The Professional is about as close as he came to convincing me that he was playing a hired assassin. And after seeing Kingsley be amazing in other films (his turn as a gangster in Sexy Beast is one for the history books), having him in this film screams squandered potential.

And speaking of squandered potential, what the heck is Luke Wilson doing in this flick? His toll-collecting schlub is given very little to do, other than regurgitate AA advice and fill up the frame. I don’t know if there were meaty parts of his performance that were left on the cutting room floor, but jeez, if you going to hire Luke Wilson, let him be something more than window dressing.

About the only people who seem to be taking the picture seriously are the lead mobsters. Phillip Baker Hall lends his usual gravitas to his role as a mob patriarch. He has just enough screen time for the viewer to savor his performance and see what a classy actor can do with sub-par material. And Dennis Farina…this guy can play gangsters in his sleep. And, while he isn’t given a whole lot to do, he does a credible job of elevating the tension whenever he is onscreen. And Bill Pullman deserves special recognition as Dave, a surly associate of Roman‘s, who helps Frank find a place to live and makes sure he makes it to his AA meetings. I don’t usually care for Pullman, and he’s nearly unrecognizable here, but he takes this minor role and just runs with it, delivering an enjoyable, if brief, performance.

But I don’t want to seem like I’m completely down on the film. The film is visually arresting, with some top notch composition, lighting and staging. There is excellent use of light and shadow, reminding me of how kick-ass John Dahl is when he’s firing on all cylinders. The film even utilizes some digital effects, which blend seamlessly into the finished product. Even if the film didn’t rock my boat in a narrative way, You Kill Me looks great.

Overall, after watching him attempt comedy with You Kill Me, I find that John Dahl is actually funnier in his grim early works than he is here. By trying to have it both ways, funny and dark, Dahl really succeeds at neither. I really wanted to like this film, but I couldn’t. I even watched it twice to make sure I wasn’t missing something. Perhaps I still am, but I cannot recommend You Kill Me to anybody except Dahl completists. There are a few nice gags, and some nice performances, but I still found myself pondering the squandered potential more than anything else.

Presentation
You Kill Me is presented in an anamorphic 2.35:1 aspect ratio. And, despite the sub par nature of the film, it is visually well presented, with vivid colors and appropriate shadows. The sole audio option is English Dolby Digital 5.1, which is okay. There isn’t a whole lot going on in this movie to properly exploit this option, but it’s nice that the studio opted for it. Subtitles are in English for the hard of hearing and Spanish.

Extras
There is an audio commentary by the director, along with writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. This is the first time that I’ve listened to an audio commentary and felt bad about not liking the picture. You can tell that all involved were extremely earnest in trying to be darkly funny. At one point, Dahl (I think) references Harold & Maude as one of the films that influenced his idea of dark comedy. I have to admit that the commentary helped me understand what they were trying to do with You Kill Me, but in the end, it was unable to sway my opinion.

The behind-the-scenes extra is merely the usual self-congratulatory back-slapping. And seeing such fine actors spout off about how much they wanted to do the film (Mrs. Duchovny actually has a producer's credit in the film), it makes me think that it's less about how much they want the viewer to enjoy the movie as much as they are trying to convince themselves not to fire their agents.

There is a featurette on the visual effects used in the film, showing how they created a Buffalo winter in springtime Winnipeg, as well as disguise the fact that with one exception, all of the scenes that take place in San Francisco were shot in Winnipeg as well. This seemed kind of like watching your nephew show you his science fair project. After seeing the limits of what can be done with high-end digital effects in films like The Lord of the Rings or Sin City, this is hardly a behind-the-scenes look at Weta or ILM. This extra was underwhelming to say the least.

Finishing out the extras is the theatrical trailer for the film, as well as some other Weinstein Company films.

The Bottom Line
As I’ve enjoyed most of John Dahl’s previous efforts, I really, really wanted to like You Kill Me. It’s disappointing to write a negative review of somebody I generally like. Maybe in a few years, I’ll be changing my tune. It’s happened before and I’ll gladly admit if I got it wrong this time around. However, in the here and now, I found the film to be depressingly unfunny and redeemed only by the supporting performances.