Movie Review - 'Killshot'

Killshot Starring Mickey Rourke, Diane Lane, Thomas Jane, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt Directed by John Madden Rated R

Fresh off a Golden Globe win and an Oscar nomination for his work in The Wrestler, there's another Mickey Rourke movie in theaters this weekend. Now, it wasn't planned this way originally. His "new" film, an adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel called Killshot, was filmed years ago. Killshot has been a troubled project all along, bouncing around for years in development before it wound up on the plate of director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love). The film went into production in October 2005, so when we thank Darren Aronofsky for reviving Rourke's career, John Madden certainly gave it a shot, too. Why the delayed release? Primarily because the film just isn't spectacular in any way. It has been sitting on a shelf for over two years now and the best chance to make money with it is by riding the coattails of The Wrestler. It's tough, as an Elmore Leonard fan, to watch a movie that has so little Elmore left in it. If you're a young writer who struggles with making your dialogue come to life, read Leonard. Just about any of it. His plots are usually OK to pretty good, but they're also not too divergent. There's good guys, bad guys, money, women, and guns in most of his crime stories. Some are funnier than others, but what makes Leonard worth the read is the characters he creates and the way they interact on the page. The film adaptations of Leonard's work have not been consistent. In one corner, there's Out of Sight, 3: 10 to Yuma, Jackie Brown, and Get Shorty, and in the other corner, you'll find Stick, Be Cool, and The Big Bounce. And the key in every case is the characters. Killshot fails to the degree that it does because one character, Richie, a small-time crook played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is so manic and unbelievable that everything else around him is poisoned. Gordon-Levitt is as much to blame as anyone else for not seeing how artificial this criminal really is, especially when he's played against a man of few words like Blackbird, the Native American hitman portrayed by Rourke. They make an odd team, and they're supposed to, but it's so far to go from Rourke to Gordon-Levitt that it's exhausting to watch scenes of them together. Blackbird, an experienced mob assassin is roped into a scheme by his new acquaintance, one that involves blackmailing a local realtor for wads of cash. But because Richie is so green, he doesn't take care to cover his tracks, so he and his partner are seen in the act by one of the realtor's employees (Diane Lane) and her estranged husband (Thomas Jane). Killshot becomes a cat and mouse game between two criminals who shouldn't be working together but are now bonded to and a couple on the outs that must work together to get through a very dangerous time. There are certainly dynamics here worth exploring, but because Joseph Gordon-Levitt has one dynamic through the entire film that overpowers everything else around it, Madden is stuck. He can't tone down one actor or amp up the others. The story advances as it must, with all four principals becoming compromised over one thing or another. An aspect of this film that I really liked is that Jane and Lane decide at one point that enough is enough and just skip town in the middle of the night. Why don't more movie characters just run from trouble? Trouble can't stay gone long, of course, not in a movie like this. Diane Lane is her usual reliable self here, and Jane is locked in. As the methodical hitman, Rourke again shows why he was so well-regarded 25 years ago. Just think of all those wonderful performances we've missed out on over the years. Hopefully, his new dedication will stick and we'll see a career reborn.

Comments

[jhon]

Watch it online in HQ : http://xtshare.com/movie/viewfilm.php?Id=179&view=killshot

[Kowloon Steve]

I have to say that I find the above a most ungenerous review, and I write from the unusual perspective of a true enthusiast for the original novel - serial re-reader - who is delighted with the overall excellence and integrity of this filmed version.
Obviously there are divergences from the reader's conception of the original novel - Donna is black, not white, and much younger and more desireable than the novel's portrayal, and the poignancy of her fate is more explicit in the film than in the book, but the film is, to my mind, a storming success. Mickey Rourke was as terrific in this part as Dennis Hopper was in Blue Velvet, or John Voight in Runaway Train.

Differences like the incorporation of a nod towards DNA considerations were very deftly handled. I hope that most of Elmore's Leonard's long-time admirers will find as much to enjoy as I have in this fine version.
Top-notch casting & excellent performances all round.

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