Jonas1969 I enjoy dark comedy and I found myself drawn into the story in the beginning. Ben Kingsley is excellent as a Polish hit-man with an alcohol problem who gets sent to AA. Téa Leoni is equally good as his lover although their chemistry is less than perfect. For the most part the supporting cast do a good job, yet as a whole it is not good. For a dark comedy to be funny something has to happen, but here it's mostly a drama with incredulous characters thrown in together. Perhaps the quality of the acting here detracts from the film because as a drama the story fails and it never really becomes a comedy.I get the feeling that director John Dahl realized it was to realistic and that's why he tried to get a comedic mood with some wacky music, but it doesn't help.If you find peoples pain a laughing matter then you'll laugh at You Kill Me. No? Then you'll sit through a pointless but well acted film.

SnoopyStyle Frank Falenczyk (Ben Kingsley) is a hit-man for the Polish mob in Buffalo but the drinking is getting in the way. He is forced to sober up in San Francisco. Tom (Luke Wilson) is his sponsor from AA, and he gets a mortician job. He falls for Laurel Pearson (Téa Leoni) who loves older men because they're done testing.Ben Kingsley is going deadpan acting in this one. He's especially proud of the precision in his killings. It's not the killing that he regrets. It's the lack of professionalism when he was drinking. It's a quirky character. He, Leoni, and Wilson are all likable people. They talk about the craziest things nonchalantly. It's a rather low energy affair. It's a quirky and cute cast, but they're not necessarily laugh out loud funny. Kingsley is too calm. He needs to play up the wackiness.

blanche-2 Ben Kingsley is one of those actors, like Daniel Day-Lewis, Helen Mirren, Toni Collette that ilk, that can disappear into a character. I mean, Gandhi as a hit man - he's quite remarkable. Also, even some good British actors can't pull off a convincing American accent - there's usually something about the way they hit their 'r's or the cadences - but Kingsley is right on.Kingsley plays an alcoholic hit man in Buffalo named Frank who misses an important hit by sleeping in an alcoholic stupor when the mark was in his sights. His angry boss sends him to San Francisco for a complete change of scenery and orders him to go to AA and not come back until he's sobered up. He sends someone along to keep an eye on him as well.Frank gets a job in a mortuary and actually is pretty good at his work. He drags himself to AA and while there, meets a recovering alcoholic Laurel (Tea Leoni) and the two begin a relationship. In the spirit of following the 12 steps, it then falls to Frank to start telling his new friends what he does for a living. When he tells Laurel, she asks him why he's telling her this, and he says, "because I don't want to be alone, and you don't either," to which she says, "Sad as this is, that's enough for me at this point." Words to that effect.This is a very low-key film and, though it's a black comedy, there's no going for laughs. The laughs are just there in the situations and the dialogue. There's also drama, but this film seems to know how to mix the two very well.All of the performances are very good, with the two leads being standouts, and the supporting cast is excellent: Dennis Farina as his boss' nemesis, and Philip Baker Hall as Roman, his boss, and Bill Pullman as the guy who tries to keep him on the straight and narrow.Well-directed by John Dahl with a good script by Marcus and McFeeley.

classicsoncall I always roll my eyes now when I read the blurbs on DVD sleeves - the one for "You Kill Me' said something like 'instant comedy classic'. I admit there were some clever one liners amid the dialog in this one, but it was few and far between, and almost always uttered by Tea Leoni's character in response to alcoholic hit-man Frank Falenczyk (Ben Kingsley). Both Falenczyk and would be romantic interest Laurel Pearson (Leoni) are entirely too one dimensional, and in Laurel's case, practically unbelievable as well. I mean seriously, who takes up with a lover once you learn he's an assassin. And as I think about it now, I don't think the term assassin was used even once in the picture. Frank merely killed people for a living. And then there was the whole business with Alcoholics Anonymous. You mean to tell me not ONE of the attendees at one of those meetings might have actually mentioned to someone on the outside that a killer was among their midst? Maybe what they ought to do is release the outtakes from this flick. Maybe air out some of those Polish jokes so we could all have a good laugh. Not being politically insensitive here, as I'm Polish myself and I love a good one every now and then. And while we're at it, what's a 'dupayash' anyway? Dupa is the Polish word for 'ass', and also the name of the main character in "Polish Vampire in Burbank". (That one's pretty bad too, but does have it's moments).Here's what you need to know. If you're ever in Buffalo, New York, take a ride down Sheridan Avenue, and keep an eye out for this huge funeral home. The name of it is AMIGONE, as in AM-I-GONE? Now that's funny.