| “There's your repentant hit men and then there's your unrepentant hit men. Frank Falenczyk, played with a merciless glower by Ben Kingsley in the wry black comedy You Kill Me, clearly falls into the latter category. An assassin in Buffalo, N.Y., for the local Polish mob run by his Uncle Roman (Philip Baker Hall), Frank has allowed his drinking to interfere with his work, so Roman exiles him to San Francisco to dry out and get his act together. There's not a lot of enthusiasm for this reformation from Frank, but he comes to realize that it's a matter of choosing between his family and his drinking, and his role in the family depends on him being an effective killer. Besides, he likes being a killer because, well, he's just so good at it. ... Though it bears a passing resemblance to the recent Kevin Costner film Mr. Brooks in its depiction of a killer dealing with addiction and its mix of mordant humor and thriller elements, You Kill Me's approach has a very different tone. Deep down, it's about relationships and the most surprising and pleasing aspect is when it veers off into quirkily romantic seriocomic territory.... “
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