Killshot

I’m no fan of DVD audio commentaries, but I found myself wanting one to find out how John Madden, a director best known for doily-and-lace (Mrs. Brown, Shakespeare in Love, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin), wound up at the helm of this tough Elmore Leonard crime picture starring Mickey Rourke and Diane Lane. It’s called Killshot (2008), and if The Wrestler marked Rourke’s comeback as the brooding heir to Brando, then this could be seen as a welcome resurrection of his back alley noirs like Johnny Handsome, Angel Heart and Homeboy.

    Of Irish lineage, Mickey defies the PC police by playing a native American hitman nicknamed Blackbird. Taking a loose cannon stickup man under his wing (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, teetering over the top), Bird hunts down newly separated couple Lane and Thomas Jane, who can ID him to the cops when they’re not sidestepping the booby traps of their failed marriage. The screenplay adaptation by Hossein Amini remains fairly faithful to the novel, in which Leonard propelled the action through character thoughts and dialog more than description. Madden captures the tension within the feverish relationships, giving ample time to meaty secondary characters played by Hal Holbrook (quite good) and Rosario Dawson (even better).

    Killshot is about people’s mounting concerns over marriage, parenting, family, friendship, loneliness and despair. It taps into the human condition and stays mostly believable throughout. The performances are first-rate, but the overall presentation may seem depressing for viewers expecting glossy, insubstantial thrills. For this fan of both Diane Lane and Mickey Rourke, however, it delivers the goods.


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