You Kill Me.

"High-concept and very low-impact, You Kill Me is almost quaint in its unassuming take on humanizing a hitman with life-crisis black humor, a gambit so old it's got whiskers," writes Nicolas Rapold for the L Magazine. "A modest affair, You Kill Me offers [Ben] Kingsley the chance to linger over what otherwise might be a side character, and lets director John Dahl revisit with a softer heart, the small scale and odd coupling of underworld and real world that good old The Last Seduction played for devilish castration fantasy."

Updated through 6/23.

For the LA Weekly's Scott Foundas, though You Kill Me "has the outward appearance of a return to form, it may in fact be the worst thing [Dahl's] ever done - an inert, tone-deaf mélange of The Sopranos and Six Feet Under."

"Co-writers for a dozen years now, [Christopher] Markus and [Stephen] McFeely, both 37, are among the blessed few - about 1800 are counted in any given year by the Writers Guild of America, West - who get paid to write Hollywood pictures," writes Michael Cieply. They're the team behind the Narnia pictures, and now, and You Kill Me "was written years ago by the pair, who dreamed up its premise in 1995 while finishing a master's program in writing at the University of California, Davis."

Interviews with Dahl: Capone (AICN), Nick Dawson (Filmmaker) and Andrew O'Hehir (Salon).

At the Reeler, Chris Willard reports on the New York premiere and points to the first eight minutes of the film.

Updates, 6/22: "With its shadows and gallows humor, You Kill Me goes about as dark as a comedy can go before turning into tragedy or self-parody," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times. Extra special: "Téa Leoni, whose sexy, shaded turn as Frank's improbable inamorata, Laurel, makes you regret all the roles this talented actress hasn't nabbed - or perhaps aren't being written for women. Under-realized, with no apparent friends and farcical taste in men, the character makes no sense, but it doesn't matter. You believe her, partly because Ms Leoni makes cozying up to danger seem like the most natural thing in the world, partly because it's just nice having this actress around."

"We've seen the inner lives of hit men and mobsters rendered innumerably in recent years on film and television, but You Kill Me does it in a satisfyingly comedic way, loaded with easily identifiable idiosyncrasies," writes Kevin Crust in the Los Angeles Times.

"Best known for sly neo-noirs like The Last Seduction and Red Rock West, Dahl chooses to dial down the tone until it's dry enough to kindle a brushfire, but the film is one of those rare occasions where going too low-key means missing many comic possibilities," writes Scott Tobias at the AV Club.

"It's small scale, low budget and not straining for big yuks," writes Richard Schickel for Time. "On the other hand, it's an unprepossessing delight, especially after Frank meets Laurel (Tea Leoni)."

Update, 6/23: Cinematical's James Rocchi talks with Dahl and Leoni.

Posted by dwhudson at June 20, 2007 12:52 PM