Metascore
64 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 25 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 25
  2. Negative: 2 out of 25
  1. Frank (Ben Kingsley) meets Laurel (Tea Leoni), a woman who has been around the block a time or 200, and she likes Frank's directness, while he likes her unflappability. This is one of the greatest screwball relationships in years.
  2. Cuddlier and more charming, this alcoholic-hitman comedy isn't your typical Dahl noir (The Last Seduction, Red Rock West), but it is offbeat, lovably deadpan, and just tart enough.
  3. Leoni is one of the truly distinctive comic actresses we have in the movies today, a tough broad with murderously effective timing and phrasing.
  4. Dahl found the right actors for every part - Bill Pullman as the cynical Realtor hired to look after Frank, Luke Wilson as the gay AA member assigned as Frank's sponsor, and the always amusing Dennis Farina as Irish mobster Edward O'Leary.
  5. 75
    It's the best role in years for Leoni, but You Kill Me really belongs to Kingsley, whose character's deadpan reactions to his new environment are priceless. He really kills.
  6. 75
    Director John Dahl keeps a firm hand on Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely's razor-sharp hit-man-in-rehab comedy, which mines the same dark vein as "Gross Pointe Blank"(1997) and "Matador"(2005), and the payoff is both slily funny and startlingly fresh.
  7. Reviewed by: Scott Bowles
    75
    Surely there aren't many emotionally fragile mobster stories left in the Hollywood arsenal. But at least Kill is a pretty good shot with the laughs.
  8. Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    75
    It's a predictable but acridly pleasant 12-step bonbon: self-help noir.
  9. A deviously delightful entertainment.
  10. 75
    You Kill Me kills you softly with its smiles.
  11. The acting is fine -- and so is the moody-blues direction -- but, given the subject matter, the movie should be blacker and more disturbing.
  12. Its razor-sharp script by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and the hilariously deadpan comic performances by Ben Kingsley and Tea Leoni make it a consistent pleasure.
  13. 70
    In other hands with another cast, You Kill Me might easily have proven just another modest production indulging in mob violence and postmodern irony. There certainly is no shortage of those. Dahl's latest, however, is something more than a modest production. It's a small wonder.
  14. 70
    We've seen the inner lives of hit men and mobsters rendered innumerably in recent years on film and television, but You Kill Me does it in a satisfyingly comedic way, loaded with easily identifiable idiosyncrasies.
  15. Straight-up ridiculous, but it's also consistently funny and nicely played by a well-complemented cast that finds its collective groove and never misses a beat.
  16. Reviewed by: Richard Schickel
    70
    I don't want to oversell You Kill Me. It is not going to leave you breathless with laughter. But I don't want to undersell it either. For an hour and a half it exerts its own preposterous reality, making you believe it -- and like it.
  17. Reviewed by: Ronnie Scheib
    70
    With an eclectic mix of strong-minded thesps all pulling in slightly different directions, this shape-shifting genre hybrid successfully commingles 12-step therapy, romantic comedy and hit-man thriller.
  18. Even if you can't accept all the movie's left curves, you might still be amused.
  19. Reviewed by: Staff (Not credited)
    67
    The main pleasure lies in watching a cast filled with fine character actors like Kingsley, Farina, Hall, and Bill Pullman work their way around the salty, noir-inflected dialogue. It's just unfortunate that those lines add up to such piffle.
  20. 63
    Leoni's presence adds a jolt of energy to a movie that, while not necessarily worth going out of your way for, turns out to be a lot more clever than it initially appears.
  21. You Kill Me is pretty light, but it's well made, and within the built-in limitations of its story -- a hit man goes to Alcoholics Anonymous -- it's fairly pleasing.
  22. You Kill Me is not so much a bad film as one filled with missed potential and marked by the seams of compromise.
  23. Dahl has directed half a dozen sardonic noir movies, dating back to "Kill Me Again" in 1989, so he should have been the ideal choice for this material. But even he can't make chicken salad from a pile of beaks, bones and claws.
  24. Inert dud of a hitmen-are-people-too comedy.
  25. Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    20
    The past decade has been less kind to Dahl, and though his latest, called You Kill Me, has the outward appearance of a return to form, it may in fact be the worst thing he's ever done--an inert, tone-deaf mélange of "The Sopranos" and "Six Feet Under."
User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 22 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 10
  3. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. I have overlooked this movie when it was released and it's through perusal of IMDb's various lists I came across it. I use the term overlooked because I usually would read the storyline and other movie information for titles that feature the Oscar winning actor Ben Kingsley; several of them appealed to my taste in the various genres he's delivered his quality contributions, though more did not. How else could I, or anyone else, have had the pleasure to see "House of Sand and Fog", if it weren't for the effort of looking for his stuff to start with? Kingsley has been known to make movies which potential monetary success were tentative. This movie is quite difficult to clearly categorize; it depends on the state of mind you're in at the time. I define it as a blend of dark and witty comedy with an expected but discrete drama fusion. The dialogue, mostly, captured my attention; of course, the performance by Ben Kingsley met my expectations. Téa Leoni, who's every single performance of the past twenty years I liked, again, did not fail to please and entertain me; she's a professional other actors have remarked look forward to team up with. The story is simple, straightforward, has many expected moments, not to use the term predictable which nuance I purposefully like to point out; sometimes simplicity allows good actors to shine because they make details count. Denis Farina plays an Irish gangster; he usually excels at half that role, the gangster part, and I was okay with that. Full Review »
  2. JCA.
    10
    A classy and jazzy masterpiece.
  3. JoyceC.
    10
    Every seven years your taste of food changes, maybe you used to like cheese wiz and now you hate it. Well my taste changed pretty fast. I saw this movie the day it came out and I didn't like it what so ever. Around two weeks later, I watched it again just 'cause I was bored and for some reason a I enjoyed it much more than the last time I saw it. After that, I noticed that you have to put full thought when you're watching this movie. And I did. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys and puts full thought into their movies. Great film. Full Review »