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(More customer reviews)Bringing pulp novelist Jim Thompson to screen has always been a tricky proposition. His dark stories are easy to push over the edge of sanity. With their undercurrent of brutality, they can walk the line of comedy and/or surrealism but still maintain a realistic punch to the jaw. Getting that tone has been hit or miss in cinema--personal favorites are the sublime "The Grifters," "Coup de Torchon" and the underrated "After Dark, My Sweet." I was stoked to hear director Michael Winterbottom had taken on "The Killer Inside Me" which had been covered poorly in an earlier production featuring Stacy Keach.
Winterbottom has assembled an impressive cast including Casey Affleck, Jessica Alba, Ned Beatty, and Kate Hudson for this neo-noir piece. Affleck stars as a low-keyed and likable law enforcement officer who gets involved with a local prostitute and enmeshed in a murderous scheme. But to cover his tracks, further bad deeds need to be done--and Affeck seems to relish this new evil! It's best not to go into the specifics of the plot and to let the film unfold, but Winterbottom does not shy away from some explicit and surprising violence. It's unsettling, to say the least, but helps to establish an effective "anything can happen" feel!
Ultimately the success of "The Killer Inside Me" rests on Casey Affleck's shoulders. He is not the conventional actor one would picture for this role. Small in stature, relaxed in delivery (and enunciation)--his offbeat presence actually makes "The Killer Inside Me" even more intriguing. As he is not a predictable "leading man" or a particularly menacing presence, you're never quite sure what he's going to do. I found this lack of expectation to be quite invigorating and led me to accept and appreciate the twists of the film to a greater degree. To be fair, the film does get loopier and loopier--but I was happy to follow this sordid tale through to the completely over-the-top finale! KGHarris, 8/10.
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Oscar-nominated actor Casey Affleck (Gone Baby Gone) gives his most chilling performance yet in the controversial crime drama The Killer Inside Me. Co-starring Jessica Alba (Fantastic Four), Oscar nominee Kate Hudson (Almost Famous), Emmy nominee Simon Baker (TV s The Mentalist) and Bill Pullman (Independence Day), this modern-day film noir shows a small town sheriff up to his neck in murders: his own. When Affleck s sheriff is asked to railroad a talkative prostitute out of town before she makes trouble, he realizes it s easier to just get rid of her for good. Unfortunately, covering up that murder means eliminating more and more people as his problems and complications spiral out of control. Even worse, he s starting to enjoy committing the crimes a lot more than he ever enjoyed dishing out the punishment. Based on the pulp fiction classic by Jim Thompson (The Grifters), The Killer Inside Me is an assured, stylish film [Guardian UK] that reveals the danger when a lawman s badge is hiding a cold, cold heart.
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