Ben
Kingsley has played baddies before and created one of cinemas all time greats in Don Logan, in 2001's
Sexy Beast. He turns his hand at playing the bad guy once more as Frank
Falenczyk in John
Dahl's You Kill Me, however, despite his best efforts, a weak script and pallid direction can't liven up a comedy drama that is neither comedic or dramatic enough to satisfy.
There are similarities between
Kingsley's creations of Don and Frank. Both have a certain nervous
twitchiness about them whilst somehow maintaining a hugely imposing figure and despite their huge moral deficiencies they both manage to be rather sympathetic characters. With better material
Kingsley may have been able to snare awards notice once again, however that is not to say he gets anywhere close to the level of brilliance he created with Logan - truly the best performance of that and many other years. Indeed it's one of the rare occasions where Matt and I are in total
agreement.
This might be worthy of a Best Comedy Actor nod or something of that nature at the Golden Globes but he's really paddling upstream against a current in the form of a screenplay that is at worst very dull and at best mildly entertaining. I'm not sure I've ever seen a good film starring Tea
Leoni so that doesn't help and none of the supporting characters, even those that are truly good actors (Phillip Baker Hall), make an impression. Luke Wilson should be asking his agent why he's got a small, insignificant part in a film like this.
The action sequences are poorly
constructed and offer no excitement or tension. There are some moments, all of which involve
Kinglsey, that make you smirk and you maybe wonder whether there's a decent film in here trying to break free but at the end of your 90 minutes you'll instantly forget everything you've just seen and feel an uncontrollable desire to watch
Sexy Beast and catch Kingsley tear up the screen with a performance in a film that has a screenplay to match.
C
Full disclosure: I love Ricky Gervais in anything he has ever done. I think The Office is one of the very best sitcoms every created. I loved Extras - and I love him in it. His stand up shows are fantastic - I paid to see his last one at the Royal Albert Hall and wasn't disappointed. I even watched his role in Stardust by skipping through the film until I hit his scenes, ignoring those that didn't feature him and - surprise - i thought he was great in it. 
