Sunday, March 29, 2015

Kill List (2011)

I almost gave up on this movie before it kicked into gear. The beginning of the movies is very slow.  It's a couple with their child, some heated arguing, but mostly two British couples talking and having dinner.  But once Jay and Gal go away on a business trip, the whole thing takes a quick 180 degree turn into horrific violence.

Jay and Gal are hit men who've been given a list of three people to eliminate.  Their client is an odd duck who cuts Jay's hand, and then his own, when Jay and Gal decide take the contract.  The list includes a priest, a librarian, and an member of Parliament.  The hit men wonder what these men did to get on the kill list.

Jay's bursts of anger are concerning to Gal, especially when he goes off the hit list to kill some people who are implicated in the horrible actions of one of the men they're hired to eliminate.  Jay's wife Shel has also been concerned about Jay's state of mind. There is the mention of something that went terribly wrong in Kiev, but it's not clear if that was a hit, or something that happened when Gal and Jay were soldiers.

After finding photos and evidence that someone is watching them while they're completing their job, they get uncomfortable about the job.  They try to get out of the last hit by asking the client to approve passing it off to another professional. The client declines and threatens to kill everyone they know if they don't complete their contract.  Things get even more screwed up after that and while I figured out the fight at the end, I was left with a "what the....?!" feeling when the film ended.

With the slow start and WTF ending, I ended up searching online to see people's theories on what happened. I quickly realized that there was a key clue in the film that I hadn't seen. I must have stepped out of the room for a minute, because that one thing would have provided a different perspective on what was occurring.  So don't zone out during the slow parts or you'll miss something that is pretty important. But honestly, I probably liked it more since that lack of information left me totally in the dark and kept me confused about what was going on.

No comments: