United Kingdom, 2002Cast: Heather Graham, Joseph Fiennes, Natascha McElhone, Ulrich Thomsen, Amy Robbins
Director: Kaige Chen
My Rating: *1/2 / ****
Some actress has physical attractiveness that earned her the word 'sexy' - sometimes with adjective 'red-hot' as its prefix - given by the audience as a part of image she had been built. And that, in turns, made some - if not many - men, would have a certain desire to watch her movies however bad the movie turns out to be, for a mere guilty-pleasure achieved by devouring her presence on screen. For me, that certain actress was known by the name Heather Graham.
Here's a simple fact about Ms.Graham, some of which had a great responsibility in leading me into the member of a cult devoted to praise her as a Goddess on screen. She's blond, white, rather misplaced eyes but somehow that part of her captivating me the most, twice and a half on her role - with the half being her role in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Sagged Me - she played as a hooker (with of course, involving as less fabrics as it is possible to be weaved into clothes which she wore on screen), and at the very least, even if not necessarily a good actress, she was among the decent ones.
In Ms.Graham's cult, like any other cults, there are some certain items which made sacred. Its mere rumor of presence would kindled the desire to 'learn' about and finally, to own. And in Ms.Graham's cult, 'Killing Me Softly' was one of the certain-sacred-item with the highest sacred-level. And after three years of longing, i finally got my hand to it. FYI, this movie was only aired on theatres in Europe, it didn't even made to the U.S' theatres, for a reason i didn't know. But with the seducing movie-poster and a rating of NC-17, you'd know what to expect from this movie.
To say that i didn't enjoy Ms.Graham presence on screen would be a big lie, as i, with lust, practically bore my eyes on screen every single frame that features Ms.Graham. Ah, to talk about desire. But, of course, the issue on it was not very relevant with the purpose of this site, especially with this article, hell, rent a porn instead. And even though that i very much loved Ms.Graham's character, doesn't necessarily that i'd love the whole movie on its entirety.
Everybody - except, maybe, a person with marchosist-sadistic disorder - won't like torture, either it's physical or mental. Neither am i. And ironically, 'Killing Me Softly', literally 'Killing Me Softly', that at some point, i'd yell.. "Hell! Kill Me Hard instead". Ms.Graham was Alice, an American in London working as a classy, executive web designer (hmm. i'd never know that there ARE web-designer who had his/her own room, thrice the size of a cubicle with a window that overlooked the street, and a private door, as well as private telephone / fax line, well, that's another issue). She lived with Alex, a normal everyday's Joe, a typical of Londoners, who had a daily-routine involving of subway, white-collar shirt, and of course, beers and a football match every weekend. They had a relationship with a sense of safety and commitment - though not bounded yet by marriage, but of course, from the very first minute we knew that the relationship would be marred. Otherwise there would be no show for the how, won't it? (don't mind the last word, just trying to para-phrasing).
The culprit was Adam (Mr.Fiennes). One day, on her way to work, Alice met eyes with him on the street, and there it goes, as simple as walking, the morality of human came to naught when like animals, the two strangers become one, even before Alice know the man's name. It was pretty intense, funny, and easily deserves an NC-17 rating. Fast forward a bit, both of them become lovers, and many characters then thrown in, like Joanna who instantly out of nowhere appeared as Alex-Alice's bestfriend who lectured Alice about 'You leave him only for a good sex?', and also Adam's sister Deborah (Natascha McElhone), the community in which Adam belongs, Adam's editor, and Adam's ex-girlfriend(s). Well, it seems now Alice had her wonderland. Was it? Well, of course not.
The movie, after the series of sexy-scene, turned abruptly into a thriller. I wasn't really prepared for it. But sadly, the surprises weren't surprising at all. It wasn't hard at all to know the truth behind the thriller. I even used the word 'know' to indicate the absence of guessing since there wasn't any guessing involved. You just know the fact. Any good thriller usually involving a guessing from the audience. Because if guessing was needed, you'd get a reward in the end wether if you guessed right or wrong. But, 'Killing Me Softly' which suffers from the absence of guessing would in turn gave no reward in the end. Alas, the only consolation from this so-called thriller that it only matters to us, the member of the cult, that Ms.Graham had her role on this. And that's just about it.
Joseph Fiennes however, was a decent actor. He was giving a palpable role in the Shakespeare in Love. And even though his role on this flick was not as good as his role on the Shakespeare, he gave a decent performance as a possessive man whose act almost always puzzling and sometimes emanate fear - or it had been intended - to the audience and to his associate on screen, Ms.Graham. But as good as it may be, however i wanted to circling myself at length to praise her and his role, in the end, everything goes full circle as it was always back to the simple fact that, "If a thriller need not guessing, that thriller can't be good."