While everyone would agree there’s nothing funny about murder, the glaring exception would be murders that happen in the movies, where murders happen a lot. They make for tense drama as well as an occasional carefully constructed comedy.
Classic examples include movie adaptations of Agatha Christie’s whodunnits, like “Murder on the Orient Express” (1974). Her recurring detective Hercule Poirot is the key to comedy in her world of crime. More recently, Daniel Craig’s character Benoit Blanc adds the same kind of humor to the “Knives Out” crime comedies. There are countless other examples, delicately mixing murder and mirth.
Director John Patton Ford’s “How to Make a Killing” is an adaptation of the 1949 film “Kind Hearts and Coronets,” which was an adaptation of the 1907 novel “Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal.” Both of these earlier works were the basis of the Tony award-winning musical “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.”
The current plot involves a young man (Becket Redfellow, played by Glen Powell) who has been disowned, along with his mother, by his obnoxiously wealthy family. She nevertheless tells him he will be the sole heir to “real estate, planes and an island or two.” What stands in his way to a $28 billion fortune are, in his words, “seven rich ——-” (Hint: rhymes with bricks.)
The movie frequently refers to a family tree showing the family members. For Becket, it’s a tree that requires some trimming.
Becket isn’t a homicidal maniac or trained hit man. He’s a likeable, handsome, middle-class guy who caves to the temptation of claiming what he believes is his rightful inheritance. There is some additional justification for his actions stemming from the fact he believes most of his rich relatives are despicable characters who deserve to die. The movie does its best to make you see things from Becket’s point of view.
The story involves a string of murders and the clever ways Becket devises to orchestrate them. It’s tricky business. After just a couple of killings, the FBI becomes suspicious of a crime pattern and quickly identifies him as a person of interest.
Adding to Becket’s pressures is the fact that one of the people on his hit list is a kind, supportive uncle whom Becket likes, and doesn’t want to kill.
A further snag is that he’s fallen in love with the girlfriend of his second victim. Keeping her in the dark during the ongoing killing spree becomes increasingly problematic.
Overshadowing all of Becket’s problems is Julia (played by Margaret Qualley), a childhood sweetheart who has grown into a leggy, sultry, femme fatale, married to a rich husband whose financial problems drive her to concoct her own criminal scheme to tap into Becket’s soon-to-be-acquired mega-fortune. Early on, she figures out what Becket is up to and casually teases, “Call me when you’ve killed them all.”
Like many gritty crime dramas, “How to Make a Killing” is told in flashback. The movie opens with Becket in a jail cell, spilling his guts to a priest just hours before his scheduled execution. It’s an effective narrative device.
Also effective are the performances of Powell and Qualley, who are both rising stars. The solid supporting cast includes Topher Grace, Bill Camp and Ed Harris (as the evil, elderly patriarch).
Watch 'How to Make a Killing' | Official Trailer HD
While the movie is getting mixed early reviews, it succeeds in serving up a crime comedy with all the juicy plot twists we like to see. It keeps you guessing. Powell and Qualley prove why they are at the top of Hollywood’s current A-list of talent. They have become bankable stars.
While “How to Make a Killing” may not become a modern movie classic, it checks all the boxes for an entertaining hybrid film, one that is definitely worth seeing. With any luck, it might succeed in making a killing at the box office.
“How to Make a Killing” is rated R.
DREW’S TAKE:
“How to Make a Killing” is movie adaptation/remake that successfully mixes homicide and humor thanks to the performances of Glen Powell and Margaret Qualley.
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