Glen Powell wants some money. How To Make A Killing, his new darker-edge comedy, wants to help him get some. Our review. There’s a bit at the start of certain videogames where you’re presented with a series of attributes, and you have to choose where to spend your points. Do you want your character to ... How To Make A Killing review | Glen Powell: does he have the edge?
Glen Powell wants some money. How To Make A Killing, his new darker-edge comedy, wants to help him get some. Our review.
There’s a bit at the start of certain videogames where you’re presented with a series of attributes, and you have to choose where to spend your points. Do you want your character to be strong, stealthy, clever, or bestowed with magical powers? That sort of thing. It’s a bit of a mechanical analogy, but I do wonder if How To Make A Killing had a moment where all concerned needed to choose where to place their points. Do they make it funny, mean, dark, or caper-y? Appreciating that every film has tonal decisions to make, I do wonder if the ones made here were slightly off.
Described unofficially as a light remake of Kind Hearts Of Coronets, How To Make A Killing – originally entitled Huntington – stars man of the moment Glen Powell, this time as Becket Redfellow. Becket is the last in a line of potential beneficiaries of a multi-billion dollar fortune. Having just watched his VHS of King Ralph, he comes to realise if the horrible, rich Redfellows in front of him in succession are, er, ‘no longer here’, then he’s about to be a very rich man.
We meet him though at the start of the film on death row, 24 hours from his execution, spilling his story to a priest. A tragic story too, of his mother having a quick fumble in a car, which in turns leads to her being ostracised by patriarch father Ed Harris when she inform him she’s pregnant. Becket’s father drops dead, his mother’s story isn’t much happier, and we meet him as an adult again, trying to make ends meet.
All very brisk, and with some propulsion to it, as well. Written and directed by John Patton Ford, who previously gave us Emily The Criminal, also in the mix are two competing potential romances: Margaret Qualley’s Julia and Jessica Henwick’s Rush. Both Qualley and Henwick are really good value, too.
The unfairnesses start to pile up for Becket then, until – as per the premise of the film – he begins to explore pruning the branches of his family tree. There are some hugely entertaining branches too, as John Patton Ford comfortably adds to the list of horrible rich people in recent cinema. We’re not quite Triangle Of Sadness, but Zach Woods in particular as the artistic cousin, and Topher Grace as the religious one, are very much in the crosshairs.
It’s taken a while for this to get to the screen, with an earlier iteration attracting Mel Gibson and Shia LaBeouf. And I do confess that as the movie went on, I felt the leading role might have been miscast. Powell has the feel and stature of a traditional, squeaky clean movie star, and while he’s leant into the shadows of that with the terrific Richard Linklater movie Hit Man, I got fewer shades in his portrayal of Becket. Sure, he’s got magnetism, and the lilt of his voice is perfect for the sizeable sections of the movie that require voiceover, yet I began wondering what a more ambiguous star – a Tom Hardy, a Robert Downey Jr, the late Ray Liotta maybe – would have done with the material. Might there have been a slightly more convincing edge to the character, one that I’m not sure Powell ever really finds. He strikes me as more at home being wronged in The Running Man that he does leading this particular ensemble. His performance isn’t bad, I just wonder if he was the wrong choice.
I also wonder if the tone plays it a little too safe. It’s not for me to tell a brilliant filmmaker how to make their film, but I think I can reasonably question whether a darker, meaner feel might have reaped a greater reward here. How To Make A Killing doesn’t quite lean in a particular direction firmly enough to make it memorable (compare that to, say, Send Help which makes a firm commitment and sticks to it). There’s the occasional chuckle rather than laugh, it entertains more than grips. And while it’s far from a bad picture, it is a frustrating one. An entertaining cameo from Ed Harris hints that there’s other more potent ways this could have gone.
What we get is perfectly entertaining, amiable and fun. But considering it’s taken over a decade to get this made, and considering the weight of talent involved, it’s a shame How To Make A Killing falls a little short. A few more twiddles of the assorted attributes right at the start of the process might have sharpened its edges a bit more.
How To Make A Killing is in UK cinemas now.
