"Killer Joe" Review

Directed by: William Friedkin

Screenplay by: Tracy Letts

Release Date: July 27^th, 2012 (Limited)

Rated: NC-17 for graphic disturbing content involving violence and sexuality, and a scene of brutality

Review by: Sean Kayden

     Director William Friedkin brings, Killer Joe, Tracy Letts’ 1993 play (who also adapted the screenplay) to the big screen. This “totally twisted deep-fried Texas redneck trailer park murder story” depicted on the film poster definitely fits that outlandish description. However, the often lurid and perverse film isn’t what it’s all cracked up to be. Emile Hirsch plays Chris Smith, a twenty something year old lowlife that owes money to a drug dealer. His mother sold his cocaine and he’s in a crucial bind. Desperate for cash, Chris seeks aid from his father Ansel, portrayed by Thomas Haden Church. Ansel, as broke as they come by these days, can’t help his son. Nonetheless, Chris proposes a plan to hire a man named Joe Cooper aka Killer Joe, a Dallas detective, who’s also a contract killer to murder his mother. His apparently good-for-nothing mother, Ansel’s ex-wife, has an insurance policy of $50,000. If they get rid of her, they can split the profit. However, the beneficiary of the will is Dottie, Chris’ younger, impressionable sister played by the lovely Juno Temple. After trying to convince his father at a seedy strip club, the two return back to their trailer park home to further discuss the matter. Dottie, overhears them contemplating the notion and is surprisingly all for it. Problem solved? Not exactly.

     Enters Joe Cooper, portrayed by Matthew McConaughey, who gives an oily slick and almost stoic, sociopath like performance. One of the character’s rules is simple, payment upfront. When Chris tries to explain to him that they’ll get the money after he takes care of his mother, Cooper is about to walk out on them. Until he lays his eyes on Dottie for a second time and suggests a retainer. Faced with the dilemma of giving us his sister, Chris and Ansel without any real trepidation put up Dottie as the retainer, figuring it won’t be that long until they get the money, anyway. After this takes place, the movie begins to unravel into a silly, nearly comical experience.

     The chemistry between characters is so uneven and lack any true spark, especially the scenes between Hirsch and Church. Church’s character is nothing but a buffoon. I’m not sure what it was exactly, but Church’s acting prowess is off kilter and utterly misguided here. McConaughey, on the other hand, is twisted and sick, but it’s difficult to take your eyes off of him. His character is unequivocally the best aspect the movie has to offer, which isn’t saying that much seeing how the rest of it is derivative, unfeasible, and merely bland. You never really care about any of these characters with perhaps the exception of Dottie. She becomes involved with a weird love affair with Joe. You’re never entirely sure if she loves him or what the deal is. In the third act, Chris has held off paying off his debt to the drug dealer long enough and he’s ready to collect. So then we have the obligatory “I-need-cash-fast-so-I’ll-bet-everything-I-have-on-a-pony-at-the-racetrack” scene and of course that becomes futile at securing the cash needed to pay off some guy who’s about to beat the crap out of you. The climax at the end is a bit obvious, but what occurs within the scene is downright explicit. The dialogue gets pretty hokie at times too. The final moments of Killer Joe couldn’t be more preposterous and inane. At the end of the day, every character is idiotic, but I guess that’s kind of the point to entire story. For a movie that’s received much praise by critics, I am honestly left stunned. Killer Joe ultimately proves to be a movie set on being nasty, shocking, and raw. Yeah, it accomplishes that all right, but simply in the worst possible way.

Grade: 2 out of 5 

Published by Mountain Views News on August 18th, 2012
http://mtnviewsnews.com/v06/htm/n33/p11.htm