The Killer Inside Me

Directed By: Michael Winterbottom

Written By: John Curran

Starring: Casey Affleck, Jessica Alba, and Kate Hudson

Director of Photography: Marcel Zyskind, Editor: Mags Arnold, Production Designer: Mark Tildesley, Original Music: Melissa Parmenter

Rated: R for disturbing brutal violence, aberrant sexual content and some graphic nudity.

    Casey Affleck’s pale and soft body fits awkwardly into the cowboy hats and boots he wears in The Killer Inside Me, an adaptation of the Jim Thompson novel from director Michael Winterbottom. His quiet voice and strange mannerisms might make him seem a strange choice for a sheriff who has a small obsession with beating and murdering others, especially women. And as this mess of a film—a unique mess at least—veers in tone throughout, it is Mr. Affleck who keeps the film in place.

    The Killer Inside Me is the most notorious of Mr. Thompson’s novels, and its easy to see the appeal of them—the story is filled with as much sex and  blood as psychological exploration. The screenplay written by John Curran tries to capture both sides of these, but it’s the violent sequences that Mr. Winterbottom focuses on—Mr. Affleck beating poor Jessica Alba’s face to an unrecognizable pulp—that will not only drive people to the theaters, but also away from them. Mr. Winterbottom is a director whose films are as diverse in theme and style as his American counterpart Stephen Soderbergh (from the meta-meta-comedy Tristram Shandy to his brutally realistic Welcome to Sarajevo and the stunningly reserved sci-fi thriller Code 46). Here, he once again takes to reinventing his style, finding a balance that feels like a mix between Stanley Kubrick and Zac Snyder.

    For his credit, Mr. Winterbottom wastes no time in getting us involved in this West Texas set story. Mr. Affleck stars as Lou Ford, a sheriff with some dark undertones. Lou goes to the home of Joyce Lakeland (Ms. Alba) and tells her to leave town. She argues, and he hits her a few too many times, so they do what anyone would do in their situation: make passionate love. From there, Lou forms a plan with Joyce to rip off one of the town’s big land owners, but Lou has a few other plans, not only for himself but his girlfriend (Kate Hudson).

    Mr. Curran’s script often feels like a unique take on Double Indemnity, doing the complete opposite of the 1944 Billy Wilder film. Unfortunately, as someone who feels that Mr. Wilder’s film is perfect, this does not bode well for The Killer Inside Me. Where Mr. Wilder is tight and heavily plotted, Mr. Curran is loose and wandering. Where Mr. Wilder’s direction is reserved, Mr. Winterbottom lets his color palette run wild. Yet these comparisons don’t really reveal the fundamental issues with The Killer Inside Me, which jumps from scenes of scantily clad women to pointless narration that wanders and wavers. The film lays on dialogue without purpose, and instead of bringing us into the environment, perhaps similarly to what Werner Herzog did in Bad Lieutenant, it explains its psychology with a couple of neatly packaged flashbacks that take away the mystery.

    And while Mr. Affleck is good at playing an innocent killer, as he did so in The Assassination of Jesse James, the screenplay takes away much of the meat of his role. The film’s controversial sequence is interesting because Mr. Winterbottom takes a chance by not moving his camera away. But it doesn’t add to the film, nor does much in the story seem to really build to anything. The film just sort of lingers with its awkward pace and bright colors until it comes to a conclusion with an explosion, but there is hardly anything explosive about it.