Kill Me Again
directed by John Dahl
directed by John Dahl
Others had more serious artistic intention though they still usually had a sexy femme fatale. It's unusual, though not impossible, for a good film noir to get by without a femme fatale.
Films of that era like Blood Simple, One False Move, Devil In A Blue Dress, and Dahl's later film Red Rock West among others, all updated the noir style for the modern era while still honoring tradition.
Kill Me Again is a 1989 neo-noir film that falls somewhere in the middle of the pack as far as quality and pacing. The acting was decent but I felt that something was occasionally a little off. I didn't completely disappear into the film the way that I will for a truly great movie.
This was probably a movie that could have used an extra ten or fifteen minutes to its run time in order to flesh out its characters, both lead and supporting, a little more.
Jack Andrews (Val Kilmer) is a Vegas area private investigator who is of course down on his luck. Business is bad. He's having trouble making payroll even though he only has one employee. Worse, in order to make rent and payroll and gamble Jack has borrowed money from the local Mob affiliate. The mobsters want their money back. Or so they say.
The mobsters tasked with retrieving payment from Jack seem as if they would be much happier hurting or killing Jack. They appear annoyed on the occasions when Jack can pay them. On top of his business problems Jack is lonely and depressed. He hasn't recovered from surviving a car accident that killed his wife.
Jack is in desperate need of money and a woman's touch. So as you might imagine Jack is somewhat easy pickings for the va-va voom mystery woman Faye Forrester (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, Kilmer's then wife) who shows up with a lot of money and a strange proposition for the private detective.
No dummy, Jack knows that Faye is not telling him everything. But he is vulnerable. Against the advice of his buddy he decides to go ahead with Faye's offer. Of course Jack's life takes a decided turn for the worse.
The viewer already knows that Faye is well, less than truthful, thanks to the opening scene. A man named Vince Miller (Michael Madsen in full brutal alpha-male effect) is looking for Faye, though not necessarily for the reasons Faye said. Although Madsen is (as always) convincing as a violent lunatic I thought as mentioned above that it would have been worth an extra few minutes explaining his backstory.
There are some story elements that make little sense when you think about them so you probably shouldn't do that.
The Kilmers have decent chemistry together. Joanne Whalley-Kilmer seems to be having a blast. It's easy to understand how she gets under a man's skin. Val Kilmer likely could have emoted a bit more. His character is supposed to be emotionally damaged but there's room between that and lobotomized.
Still, this film was a decent weekend afternoon/late night movie. There's not much explicit violence by modern standards.
