Review: Kill List

Kill List has become a critical darling amongst British reviewers this year, but unfortunately for second-time director Ben Wheatley, the average cinema-goer is no film critic and word-of-mouth just may be at the opposite end of the opinion spectrum.  In a way, that would be fitting as Kill List is in many ways a bipolar film.  It seemingly begins in one genre and ends up in quite another.  The film is, at times very funny, at others extremely brutal and sometimes both.  The lead couple of Jay (Neil Maskell) and Shel (MyAnna Buring) have a passionately manic relationship, which teeters from seething to tender over the course of one evening.  The end result is ripe for mixed reactions, but may leave the ordinary viewer cold.

Director Ben Wheatley and the cast of Kill List at the UK premiere at FrightFest 2011

Kill List begins with an illustration of the stormy, yet loving relationship between Jay and Shel.  She berates him for not having worked for the past eight months, leaving the couple and their young son, Sam, struggling to scrape by.  For all the trials and tribulations between husband and wife, Jay is shown to be nothing less than a loving father to Sam and a sword fight scene between father and the team of mother and son is pivotal, not only because it is the one truly joyous moment in the film that is shared by all three.

Soon after Jay’s best mate and business partner, Gal (Michael Smiley) is introduced via a tense dinner party scene.  Having served in the army as snipers together, the duo officially spend civilian life in commercial sales, but in reality are hired guns.  Gal brings stability and light-hearted humour to the table to counteract Jay’s deepening dark side.  The plot feels straightforward enough at this point, but then Gal’s date, Fiona- whose HR role sees her assessing underperforming departments, exhibits some strange behaviour that is the first hint that things are not what they seem.

At Gal’s urging, Jay takes up his first job with him since the unexplained Kiev incident eight months prior. The following day they set off to pick up the details of the job and their payments.  Without revealing too much, the story then focuses on the pair preparing for and carrying out a series of hits.  Dark humour abounds and the violence on display is not for the weak of heart.  Wheatley literally pulls no punches and there is little that is left to the imagination when it comes to the brutality.  Ironically, he employs a different tact when it comes to the development of the plot.  There is plenty that is left unexplained, even prior to the bizarre shock finale.

Having written the roles specifically for his leads, Wheatley gets some fantastic performances from Maskell, Smiley and especially MyAnna Buring, who feels almost too polished an actor in this gritty piece.  Where the dialogue between Maskell and Smiley is at times difficult to make out between their lack of projection and the overly loud background noises, Burning is crystal clear in her delivery and highly convincing.  She delivers a solid and consistent characterisation, which makes her final scene even more frustrating.

Ben Wheatley introducing Kill List at the Prince Charles Cinema

With Kill List, Wheatley is quite possibly too clever for his own good.  The film is dense with hints, subtle clues and foreshadowing.  Yet, little of this will be picked up in one viewing.  If the closing twist feels predictable, it’s not a coincidence.  Wheatley plants that seed and then layers it beneath shocking scenes that are memorably graphic or terribly claustrophobic- even in the biggest of cinemas.  For such master-strokes and utilising a haunting score so well, Wheatley deserves much applause.  However, while a second screening of this will bring many revelations, there are still too many loose ends and hints that appear to lead nowhere.  For many, one viewing of this will be enough but for those who are willing to give it another chance, the second viewing is far more satisfying.  Even still, Kill List may require further viewings and quite possibly a doctorate in Arthurian legend to fully comprehend, so while intelligent, multi-layered films are very welcome in this, the days of the remake, Wheatley needs to ensure that he is not shooting too far over his audiences’ head.  Kill List is an intriguing ride, but satisfaction is too difficult to come by.  7.5/10

For more discussion of Kill List, please check out the discussion post.