Unsung Heroes #001: James Gandolfini in Killing Them Softly
TV and movie performances that don’t get the love they deserve.
Has an actor ever been so simultaneously lauded and underrated as the late James Galdolfini? On the one hand, it’s hard to feel sorry for a man who headlined the most garlanded show in TV history in a performance that brought him adulation, placed him in the cultural canon for eternity, and no doubt filled his coffers up nicely. Tony Soprano is the role of a generation, and it’s not a hot take to say that Gandolfini was extraordinary in the role, finding humour, warmth, and sex appeal in the gangster boss while never once diluting the darkness at his core.
What’s strange, though, is the paucity of quality film work that came his way after David Chase’s crime saga debuted and even wrapped up. Decent starring roles were few and far between. There’s an uncomfortable turn in Surviving Christmas, a charismatic but quickly forgotten lead in John Turturro’s musical Romance & Cigarettes, and a gig opposite John Travolta in neo-noir Lonely Hearts, which, no, me neither. Sadly, he passed away before the release of Nicole Holofcener’s Enough Said. This could have been a game changer for Gandolfini, who’s impossibly sweet and real as well-meaning galoot Albert. Opposite Julia Louis-Dreyfus, he’s a sparkling romantic lead in his most well-rounded role since The Sopranos.
He’s been used more effectively as an impact sub, with some great supporting turns to his name. Pre-Tony, he was terrifying as brutal enforcer Virgil in True Romance, and played a similar, if less nasty, role in Get Shorty. He’s a blast as In The Loop’s one sane man and brings a lot of presence to the Coen brothers’ The Man Who Wasn’t There.
Best of the lot, though, is his performance as fading hitman Mickey Fallon in Andrew Dominick’s vastly underrated Killing Them Softly. Gandolfini is in his element in this crime drama with hidden depth, but while he had eight years to flesh out Tony Soprano, here he’s given about 10 minutes. He doesn’t waste a second of it. Killing Them Softly is a gangster story set in a particularly unglamorous, money-driven world. The idealistic dreamers of the film try and fail to better their position; the no-hopers who can’t earn anymore are put out of their misery. It’s about as far from the sweeping grandeur of The Godfather as a mob picture can get.
Gandolfini’s Fallon is the reality of an underworld legend. He’s built up as a button man par excellence, brought in by Brad Pitt’s Cogan to assist with a job. The man who turns up, though, is a nub, broken down by poor personal choices, predilections, economic downturn, and the spider web of the American legal system. His first scene is mesmerising, one of the finest subtextural introductions to a character in recent film. Fallon is allowed to rattle on at length, complaining about a recent gun charge for “a fuckin’ shotgun I bought in a fuckin’ store to hunt fuckin’ geese with”. His bitter soliloquies are punctuated by barbs launched at a timid waiter who can’t keep up with Mickey’s demand for martini after martini.
No one can convey as much through consumption as Gandolfini could. Tony’s frequent trips to the refrigerator were used to denote moments of triumph and frustration for the character. Here, he doesn’t even chug his drinks, he inhales them; so desperate is he to top up his alcohol levels that he takes Pitt’s beer from him between rounds, knocking the whole thing back in one go.
Galdolfini’s given the majority of the scene, much of it in long shots, and the depth he’s able to give Mickey is extraordinary. He goes from his legal woes to his estranged wife, who has seen her husband blunder his way behind bars one time too many and now wants a divorce. Fallon has made promises in the past to change, but acknowledges here that he hasn’t done so, and won’t this time, either. He’s a character who knows precisely where and why his life is going wrong, but is unable or unwilling to do a thing about it.
Mickey regains a degree of dignity at the scene’s end when he and Cogan begin to discuss business - he still has a purpose in this world, it seems, even if it’s a nefarious one. He plans a hit more calmly than he orders a drink; perhaps there’s life in the old dog yet. It’s his second scene, though, that’s the killer. Fallon goes from sad sack middle aged man to big baby when Cogan finds him in his hotel suite, pissed out of his mind in the middle of the afternoon, babbling about old glories.
Despite playing such an oafish, crass, criminally minded character, Gandolfini is still able to find the humanity in Mickey. When Cogan finally grows tired of the nonsense and asks his colleague if everything’s alright, Mickey splutters for an explanation before letting out a sad, defeated “leave me alone”. And when Cogan looks to sever ties with the guy altogether, Mickey ramps it up further with a genuine tantrum.
Gandolfini’s performance as tired, beaten down old crook is the high point of Killing Them Softly. He’s a man who realises his usefulness has just about run out, who knows he can’t find the tide of progress but has no intention of making a dignified exit. You don’t get two Tony Sopranos in one lifetime, but he could have gone on being the best thing in great movies for a long time to come.
