You Kill Me (2007)

(In theaters, July 2007) Independent comedy alert! This film will be quirky, off-beat and ultimately not that funny because the directory can’t make up his mind whether he’s going for the laughs or for indie street-creds. Same old story. The only question left pondering is; is it still interesting? Well, yeah. For starters, the premise has some kick to it, as a drunk assassin joins an Alcoholics Anonymous group to wean himself of some bad habits. There’s a hilarious scene in which the Anonymous part of AA truly comes into play. The film’s humour is of the very dry variety, quipped by a splendid Ben Kingsley, with pretty good supporting performances by Tea Leoni, Bill Pullman and one of the Owen brothers. Alas, the film can’t commit to either a crime drama or a romantic comedy, and so treads a middle ground that ends up satisfying no one. Dead bodies end up leadening the storyline with little positive impact. At least Winnipeg gets to play Buffalo and parts of San Francisco (!) and we get another good-enough independent comedy film.