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The Killer Inside Me (2010)

Director: Michael Winterbottom

Time Out rating

Average user rating

27 reviews

Synopsis

A brutal take on Jim Thompson's novel of small-time crime and retribution.

Movie review

From Time Out London

It’s 1959, West Texas: the sun is beating down and the sheriff’s deputy, Lou Ford (Casey Affleck), is padding the quiet, widescreen streets of smalltown Central City like a model law enforcer, courteous and polite to the passing citizenry and neat in his blouson, tie and – the Southerner’s sacred badge of down-home decency – kidskin boots and wide-brim Stetson. But, he’s walking through Jim Thompson country – the dissembling, rotten home ground of the nihilistic pulp novelist from whose shocking 1952 novel Michael Winterbottom has fashioned his first American movie – and nothing is as it first appears.

The sarcastic faux banalities Lou offers people he meets, for his own light amusement, may betray a more complicated mind than the handsome young detective likes to make plain. He’s also shouldering a tragic past involving a lost brother-in-law which in-the-know locals (including union man Elias Koteas), the city fathers (including Ned Beatty), his secret long-term girlfriend Amy (Kate Hudson) and fellow police colleagues (including Tom Bower’s sheriff) happily connive in keeping buried. But few realise that the man is a walking timebomb. However, the day soon comes when he’s sent to chase off a local prostitute, the beautiful and fiery Joyce (Jessica Alba), and receives the slap that is to trigger in him an explosion of unexpected passion, intricate deceit and murderous self-destruction…

The film arrives on screens heralded by some box-office-boosting bad publicity, with shockwaves emanating from some who have witnessed the film’s face-pulverising, hard-to-stomach bouts of violence. Yet this again-atypical film from Winterbottom, the genre-swapping director of ‘A Mighty Heart’, ‘Genova’ and ‘The Road to Guantanamo’, is a much more sober affair than its early, controversial press might suggest.

Faithful – awfully – to Thompson’s devil’s-résumé-style source text and despairing worldview, it also occupies an emotional space of unnerving calm. The unfussy, if lazily expressive, cinematography (by Winterbottom regular Marcel Zyskind) of familiar ’50s Americana, the unobtrusive set design of jail, courthouse and Texan home, and the relaxed, cowpoke-paced editing are all in concert with it. Together they produce a dirge-like accompaniment to a hypnotic and remarkable central performance by Affleck.

With his other Ford (movie-stealing coward Robert in Andrew Dominik’s retro-western ‘The Assassination of Jesse James…’) and his terrific turn as the Boston cop in his older brother’s underrated ‘Gone Baby Gone’, the younger Affleck is arguably becoming the most compulsively watchable American actor of his generation. He’s capable of saving a pretentious film (‘The Assassination…’), giving a spine to a potentially diffuse one (‘Gone Baby Gone’) and, as here, giving a sense of mystery and plaintive spirituality to a movie that would otherwise seem underpowered and uncertain of its own moral purpose or profundity. There are other good performances to enjoy – notably from Koteas and Alba – but it’s Affleck who justifies the price of your ticket.

Author: Wally Hammond

Time Out London Issue 2076: June 3 – 10, 2010

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User reviews of this film

Melanie Anne said...

Posted on Apr 12 2012 08:16 This is the most repulsive film I have ever seen in my entire life. I don't care if you think this rubbish is even close to art. I literally felt sick to my stomach. Usually a movie conveys meaning no matter how demented. But this? Way past demented. Awful ending. Awful acting. Meaningless amounts of porn. The violence was long and drawn out. This director is sick for making a film like this.

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Dorothy H said...

Posted on Mar 22 2011 18:41 I love art house movies and can handle dark material as much as the next person, but I found this movie particularly disturbing. It left me feeling sick, upset, angry and quite frankly, wondering why anyone would want to make this film. I had such an unusually adverse reaction to it that i couldn't wait to get it out of the house. I don't know what the rest of you are going for when you watch a movie, but I would not recommend this to anyone, unless that is you enjoy watching unnessary over the top violence towards women and basically pointless unredeeming material.

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drew said...

Posted on Sep 12 2010 11:22 If you you enjoy watching and listening to someone(Afleck) who sounds the whole of the film as if hes STRAINING himself to have a crap then youll love this !! I can imagine Mark Kermode liking it.

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L AJ said...

Posted on Sep 08 2010 04:23 Winterbottom, a sensationalist calculating hack is after controversy and publicity and is trying to sell movie with it.
Violence towards women is a major selling point in this dishonest adaption.

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zax said...

Posted on Sep 05 2010 04:53 Sick. Not to be watched. A bland and stupid movie that will be classed as "art" by sophisticated hot shot critics. Remember, their only objective is to try and seem 20 to 30 points above their subpar IQs. Dont be fooled by them into seeing this. its fine walking out of a sh8T movie, going for dinner, then going on with the rest of your life. But the sickening scenes of downright misogeny. 2 scenes of unnecessarily prolonged, painful, pornographic beatings are what lingered in my mind, and spoilt my dinner. and what makes me hope that the director, as well as the rapists and senators that will enjoy this film, be hacked up in an ally by an escaped schizophrenic. In all seriousness, i really feel those involved in the production of this snuf film (ie the director, producer, editor) should lose their careers. Or at very least, apologise publically. From a guy who loves movies, from Salt to Shrek to Saving Private Ryan to Saw. How dare you, you f'''''' bas'''''. You should be ashamed, and the worst thing is you're not.

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Spencer said...

Posted on Jul 28 2010 04:58 People seem to be shocked that a film based on a pulp novel would end up feeling like... a pulp novel. It's sensationalistic, goes for cheap thrills, and it makes you feel vaguely dirty and uncomfortable, yes, but that's sort of the point, isn't it?
Casey Affleck held his own very well in this movie I believe. He was interesting as an unreliable narrator and the way he plays the character allows the audience to have moments where they can almost rationalize his actions along with him. That, to me, was a lot more disturbing (and exciting) than the lurid displays of violence.

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BobbyM said...

Posted on Jul 10 2010 00:45 ...Regards Source material, I think the best films made stand up on there own immaterial of there origins.

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Thomas Noctor said...

Posted on Jul 07 2010 11:44 What a terrible film. I was looking forward to this, but it was a complete and utter lazy mess! It's as if it was made up as it went along. It's just a man spanking women on repeat, the scenes are repetitive, it's as if they ran out of scenes to shoot. The acting was dismal from Alba, she has no facial expression as she is being punched in the face, while saying 'I love you' to the man that's beating her almost to death? As for the attempted 'Tarentino' ending? Terrible. Worst film I've seen since 'The Road'

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willy said...

Posted on Jul 07 2010 06:19 In most cases, it helps being familiar with the source material. This case is no exception. Most of the folks posting here just don't get it.

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scrumpyjack said...

Posted on Jun 30 2010 20:21 forgot, 3* (No Casey? maybe 4*)

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scrumpyjack said...

Posted on Jun 30 2010 20:19 ANOTHER potential excellent film drops a star due to casey affleck.He just isnt lead material. BUT its still a good watch, the violence is nothing compared to, say irreversable (so some comments here are misleading) and Alba's performance is fine. its Casey who sullies the film. 7/10

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Bill Sharp said...

Posted on Jun 26 2010 15:19 A terrible film, plain and simple. Affleck's cold performance leaves the viewer numb. The performances by Alba and Hudson make their characters so hollow that sympathy for the women in the story is the last thing on your mind as you're watching them getting brutally assaulted. Alba's performance is particularly remarkable--how can someone so wonderful to look at be so excruciating to watch? The sexual themes in the film neither explain the protagonist's issues nor do they produce any eroticism that make the film more entertaining. Winterbottom is an excellent director, but this is simply an awful film.

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J.A.L said...

Posted on Jun 25 2010 20:44 Winterbottom shows again what kind of calculating sensationalist dishonest hack he is.
First it was 9 Songs and unsimulated sex and now this movie and it's gratuitous prolonged violence towards women.
This director really does anything to gain publicity and deliberately wants to create controversy.

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Dave said...

Posted on Jun 25 2010 16:52 Saw it last night. Found I had to look away from some of the violence directed at women in the film, and I've seen some pretty graphic films in my time. The reviewer is right that Afflecks performance justifies the ticket price. A horrible, bleak and brutal pulp story.

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JayneM said...

Posted on Jun 15 2010 16:21 I really enjoyed this film, even though it was violent & brutal, the first murder made me look away & cringe!. There were a few questionable events / mistakes as Silvestrito has pointed out. I thought Casey Affleck played his character really well, I would recommend watching this.

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