Winterbottom, new eclectical flirt with transgression

Casey Affleck has one of the most reedy and unattractive voices I ever heard. Summed to his very simple, gentle, well-mannered and upstanding surface as a Texan sheriff's deputy, he might very well catch you when letting the killer he has inside go out. The Killer Insight Me is a new adaption of the novel by Jim Thompson published in 1952, set in the same decade at an increasingly asphyxiating small town. Like the novel, among the very noir titles in its genre, the film is one of those examples of You like it / you don't like it movies because of the crime and corruption style but because of its director's imprint too. Michael Winterbottom newly transgresses, with extremely explicit brutality this time. After sex -or hard-core pornography in 9 Songs- or Guantamo (The Road to Guantamo, documentary), it comes sadomasochist instinct and violence, especially against women. Well-known for his true seeker approach, we should not be surprised for the way he confronts where many others had only suggested. Literalism is main track in his very eclectic career. Still we can be terrified by how far he can get.  Even when that prostitute (Jessica Alba) and that fiancé (Kate Hudson) are so cruelly beaten in Thompson's original story.

I recognize that I had my doubts on Jessica Alba before I took my seat. When Joyce, the beautiful prostitute in a yellowish and quiet house opened the door to Lou Ford, still to liberate the devil inside, my prejudice started to be demolished. Alba is not only hot and sexy but I considerably believed her when losing her mind for a wrong man that will hit her savagely. Considering she also starred Machete recently, it seems she starts to carely choose her works. Kate Hudson part is less exciting but very evolving. Both good girls perverted because of him. Even when despicable, sex and violence scenes with Alba and Hudson are simply superior. 

Thus, although the excellent (Affleck), outstanding (Alba) and elegant (Hudson) performances and a marked  personal touch in his first Hollywood movie, I still regret the way he presents other characters, not letting them to grow enough to explain themselves in the plot. Empowering mood and sensations should not constrain a clear discourse on the screen and, in my opinion, a sindicate worker, a rich businessman and many others come and go without making obvious enough how they are making the story more and more intriguing. Still, although complicated and rare The Killer Inside Me is an interesting choice.