One thing that makes
You Kill Me one of the best movies I've seen so far this year is
Jeff Jur's photography.
You Kill Me is shot in cool tones (notice how strong the blues are in dusky interiors). In bright light, the image flirts with overexposure. The first choice underscores the cool, hardbitten nature of the film's characters, most of whom have spent their lives in literal and metaphorical shadows, away from others, a quality connoted by the near washing out of the image when they are drawn into the light.
Jur also makes selected use of
rack focus to bring the audience into Frank's (Ben Kingsley) point of view. There are three shots in particular where this device is put to use: one where Frank catches his reflection in a window while talking to his soon-to-be AA sponsor, Tom (Luke Wilson), one where Frank looks up at the top of the Golden Gate Bridge while talking to Tom about “accepting a higher power,” and one where he fixes on one of his fellow alcoholics, Becky (Katie Messina), whose confessional moves him to speak. In each of these moments the shift in focus from Frank to what Frank is looking at pulls the audience, briefly, into his way of viewing the world and his place in it. Very subtle, but effective and not at all jarring.
(It would be very wrong to write about this movie without mentioning the performances, particularly Téa Lenoi as Laurel. Watch how she uses the smallest of facial expressions and shifts in posture to convey her character's reaction to Frank's self-introduction to his San Francisco AA group. As for Kingsley's Frank, it would be easy to write this character off as a version of
Don Logan, but beyond their superficial similarities, the two men are very different. Logan is a force of nature. Frank Falenczyk is all scarred humanity. Bill Pullman's Dave is far more complicated than he has any right to be, and Philip Baker Hall and Dennis Farina are exactly what they need to be. I'm not one to measure a film's worth by such things, but, seriously, at Oscar time
You Kill Me will get no recognition, not even Leoni, and that will be a shame).
Originally posted on:
Short-Circuit Signs