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Review: 'You Kill Me," Ben Kingsley as an AA hitman

BY GENE SEYMOUR | gene.seymour@newsday.com

June 22, 2007

In an American movie universe ruled by superheroes, it's a brave film that dares slip its toe into the marketplace with a bland, coarse, morally questionable screw-up for a protagonist. As with its alcoholic hit-man hero, "You Kill Me" may not look like much. But you root for it anyway, if only because it tries so hard to do the right things in a different way.

Carrying the same splintered-fencepost patina he brought to his memorable thug in 2000's "Sexy Beast," Ben Kingsley plays Frank Falenczyk, a professional killer who gets through the endless winters of Buffalo by diving into bottles of vodka.

The Slavic mobsters to whom Frank's services are exclusively contracted are very upset with him for nodding off in his car instead of doing away with a rival (Dennis Farina) about to muscle into their territory. The clan's patriarch (Philip Baker Hall) orders Frank to dry out in San Francisco - or else.

Frank has to be prodded into attending AA meetings by a snarky Realtor (the inimitable Bill Pullman) hired to baby-sit him during rehab. Frank's also compelled to work in a funeral home and he's not exactly giddy over having a gay toll booth attendant (Luke Wilson) as his sponsor. But things start to look up when he meets the sultry, no nonsense Laurel (Téa Leoni, finally in a movie role worthy of her) on the job. Now, if he can just stay upright on that proverbial wagon ...

Director John Dahl, a proven whiz at quirky noir thrillers with such priors as "The Last Seduction" and "Red Rock West" on his record, manages to delicately weave elements of the hired-gun subgenre, the up-and-down struggles for sobriety and the screwball romantic comedy into something cozy, funny and even inspiring - in an odd, cranky and mildly believable way.