Today’s quick review: Kill Me Three Times. Hired to follow Alice (Alice Braga) by her suspicious husband Jack (Callan Mulvey), gun-for-hire Charlie Wolfe (Simon Pegg) stumbles upon a crime in the making: to pay off his gambling debts, dentist Nathan (Sullivan Stapleton) and his wife Lucy (Teresa Palmer) have arranged to kill Alice in an insurance scam. Meanwhile, Alice’s disappearance causes her lover Dylan (Liam Hemsworth) to start asking questions.
Kill Me Three Times is a black comedy that follows the tangled, criminal interactions of eight people in a small Australian town. Kill Me Three Times has a low budget but interesting writing and capable presentation. The movie makes liberal use of violence, swearing, and treachery, but its dark nature is offset by an irrepressible sense of humor.
Kill Me Three Times has the winding plot and darkly comical tone of a Coen Brothers movie. The movie retraces its steps on several occasions, showing its events from a new perspective and layering extra complexity into the plot. However, Kill Me Three Times handles a few of its twists inexpertly, and it has a tendency to resolve its plot threads with violence rather than anything more sophisticated.
Kill Me Three Times also deserves some credit for its characters. Alice makes for a sympathetic figure, not quite innocent but purer than the scoundrels around her. Simon Pegg ties the movie together as Charlie Wolfe, a cocksure assassin with a casual attitude and a professional edge. As for the rest of the cast, they fill their roles well enough. The acting is a step down from bigger-budget movies, but the film’s colorful writing helps make up the difference.
More than most movies, how much you get out of Kill Me Three Times will depend on your tastes. Fans of quirky crime movies who don’t mind a dip in execution quality will find it to be a short, entertaining romp with plenty of plot to chew on. But in the end, it is missing the extra polish and clarity of vision of the best movies that try the same thing. For a crime comedy in a similar vein, check out Burn After Reading, The Whole Nine Yards, or The Big Lebowski.
5.9 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 6.5 to 7.0 for an intricate and amusing plot.