Killing Them Softly

Being an Enforcer for the mob isn’t always easy – what with all that tracking people down and killing them or arranging for someone else to do so. Plus, as Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) points out, in their moments before they’re killed people get “emotional…they cry, they plead, they beg…it’s embarrassing.” That’s why, he explains, “I like to kill them softly, from a distance, not close enough for feelings – I don’t like feelings, don’t want to think about ‘em.”

In Killing Them Softly Cogan gets plenty of opportunity to avoid thinking about the impact of the things he does to make a living. Set in New Orleans, Killing Them Softly is an American crime film directed and written by Andrew Dominik and based on George V Higgins’ 1974 novel, “Cogan’s Trade.”

In the film, a high-stakes poker game that is under mob protection gets raided by some outsiders. Cogan, of course, is charged with investigating the heist and then finding and killing the people who did it. Although suspicion initially fell on the card game’s manager, Markie Trattman (Ray Liotta), Cogan soon finds out that the person behind the scam was actually John “The Squirrel” Amato (Vincent Curatola).

The Weinstein Company plans to release Killing Them Softly on September 21, 2012. The film also features Richard Jenkins, James Gandolfini, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, Sam Shepard, Slaine, Bella Heathcote, Linara Washington and Garret Dillahunt. Rated R, for violence, sexual references, pervasive language, and some drug use.