Kill Me Later

Shawn (Selma Blair) is a suicidal young woman. Meting out a miserable existence as a loans officer at an LA bank, she has long decided that her childhood dreams are destined to go unfulfilled and that her life holds nothing for her except a distant and inevitable death. Not that she’s helping much. Her relationship with her family has disintegrated, she’s killed her goldfish, and she’s sleeping with her arsehole of a boss Matthew (D.W. Moffett).

When she arrives at work resolved to end the affair and straighten up her life, she is completely thrown by revelations that Matthew’s wife is pregnant and that he’s been playing her all along. Consumed by self-loathing, she heads up to the roof to hold counsel with a vodka bottle and to put an end to her misery once and for all. Little does she know that, as the bottle empties, a group of thieves are holding up an armoured car below. Perched on the edge and preparing to jump, she’s suddenly dragged away by a masked assailant (Max Beesley) and a gun is pressed to her head. Surely she couldn’t have planned this better, but no matter how much she pleads with her captor, a young cockney called Charlie, he just won’t shoot her! For fleeing as he is the bungled robbery below, Charlie needs Shawn as a hostage to escape his pursuers. And so a bargain is struck: Shawn will help Charlie to escape the fuzz, but only if he agrees to kill her later. And so our two hapless protagonists find themselves on the lam together...

After an intriguing setup, Kill Me Later enters familiar romantic comedy territory for these two lost souls (be it much blacker than normal). As Charlie contemplates a future behind bars, and Shawn contemplates a quick and painless death, they both start to learn what drove the other to their separate acts of desperation. And with its low-budget, darkly-comic feel, Kill Me Later delivers a highly enjoyable ride.

A genre-film it may be, but with a gritty edge and a peculiar dynamic between its romantic leads, Kill Me Later provides a fresh take on an old formula. Of course the whole package rides on the ability of its two leads to sell their particular predicaments, and thankfully Selma Blair and Max Beesley are more than up to the task. With what little of Shawn’s back-story the audience is given, it rests completely on the shoulders of Blair to sell the desire for Shawn to end her life. However Selma’s gothic, bilious chain-smoker literally oozes self-loathing from her very pores; whilst still managing to perfectly deliver some wry comic exchanges. I really am liking Selma more and more with every new role! Max Beesley is also fantastic as the easy-going limey Charlie, whose lust for life and willingness to see the bright-side is set in direct contrast to Shawn’s misery. Together the two form a likeable pair, and the all-important romantic chemistry abounds.

It is well that Blair and Beesley are so bloody good, as the direction from Dana Lustig is just plain woeful. With rapid-fire MTV-style editing and copious use of montages, slow-motion, fast-motion, repetition, jump-cuts and other jarring editing techniques, Kill Me Later feels just a little bit forced. The last-straw comes with garish colouring and overlay techniques in the film’s climax that look like they stepped straight out of an ’80s video clip. I kept waiting for the vocal stylings of Debbie Harry or Robert Smith to issue forth, but curiously they never eventuated! The result of all this is a film that looks like a film student’s project rather than a Hollywood feature. When the film's poorly realised supporting characters are added to the mix (everyone apart from the leads feeling tacked on) you start to wonder how Lustig manages to survive in the movie-making business. However, the performances she elicits from her leads more than make up for any deficiencies and Kill Me Later entertains to the last.

Whilst releases from local producer Magna Pacific seem to run the gamut from poor to stunning, I’m happy to report that the transfer on offer for Kill Me Later is certainly inching towards the latter. That’s not to say it doesn’t have its problems, but overall the widescreen anamorphic transfer (at the original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1) is very nice indeed. Whilst black level is perfect, colours are bright, vibrant and perfectly rendered. Although introducing a little of aliasing and moiré, the image is beautifully sharp, with an abundance of detail during both well-lit and lowly-lit scenes. The many instances of smoke, and Shawn’s fluffy pink slippers (don’t ask!) are all handled well, and the Canadian countryside looks wonderful.

Although the overall image is pleasing, there are some small problems that have been introduced at each stage of the production process. Whilst the print is generally clean, a flurry of black specks can be seen during the credit sequence; disappearing quickly, and followed by only the odd unnoticeable speck. In addition, the print also displays quite a bit of grain during the darker scenes – a problem that no transfer could have addressed. In terms of the film-video process, some telecine wobble can be seen during the credit sequence, but either it vanishes or it is unnoticeable during the remainder of the feature. In addition, there’s quite a bit of edge enhancement from time to time that, whilst never reaching annoying levels (it rarely annoys me), is certainly noticeable. The mastering process has also added several minor MPEG artefacts, with pixelation and posterisation appearing on several occasions in the background of some shots.

But all in all, while I report these problems, I was more than happy with Magna’s treatment of Kill Me Later, and hope that it signals even better things to come from them in the future.

A seemingly low-budget production, Kill Me Later provides only a genre-typical Dolby Digital stereo mix. Making only limited use of the surround and subwoofer channels, the audio rarely ventures from the front of the soundstage. When it does venture towards the rear, it’s primarily to handle the sharp short bursts of indie-rock that punctuate proceedings. During these times the soundstage is well balanced, nice and full. As noted, other instances of surround activity are rare, with the exception of the odd effect such as police sirens. Likewise the subwoofer is only lightly utilised; subtly supporting the rock tracks and helping out with the odd car crash. All in all a rather unimpressive yet serviceable audio track that provides a reasonable compliment to the film.

It’s a theatrical trailer I’m afraid and nothing else. With the film being a surprise indie gem, I would have liked to have heard from Selma Blair and Max Beesley about the making of the film. Oh well..

Despite its shortcomings, Kill Me Later is an entertaining film that presents a nice twist on the normal romantic comedy dynamic. With great performances from its two leads, this is definitely a film I would recommend you check out, although with such a poor supporting cast, maybe you'd be advised to try a rental first...