Movies in the “portrait-of-a-killer” category have it tough; telling a murder mystery of sorts from the viewpoint of the killer can't be an easy feat. If the audience isn't going to like or root for the lead character, then all that's really left is to understand why the killer came to be how he or she is.
The Killer Inside Me does exactly everything it should: it reveals layer by layer Lou Ford's (Casey Affleck) motives, and what exactly causes the hamster to turn the wheel in his twisted, violent head. The story begins with Lou(Casey Affleck), a deputy in a friendly, quiet Texas town, introducing us to various characters in his life, each one of them quite amiable and respectful to him. Everyone knows everyone. The town's so tame, he doesn't even carry a firearm. An unarmed Texas police officer must be a sight to behold.
In an effort to get back at the town's wealthiest and most powerful business man, Chester Conway (Ned Beatty), for an act of cruelty against his brother, Lou arranges for a Conways's son to take the rap for a barbaric assault and murder at the house of a local prostitute, played by Jessica Alba. It's a brutal spectacle watching Lou create the scene that will ultimately end Conway's son's life, and tarnish the Conway family. Once it's over, and the deed has been done, all that Lou has left to do is make sure all tracks he left are covered.
Of course, that doesn't happen, and no crime is perfect when you're in a town where everyone knows everyone. Lou's alibi becomes less and less believable as clues start to amount, especially when an out-of-towner district attorney, (Simon Baker), takes the helm of leading the investigation, and is the first to start thinking everyone's favorite deputy Lou Ford might not be as innocent as everyone thinks.
Bits and pieces of Lou's sordid childhood are filtered in to the story via quick flashbacks. While a lot of it is kept nebulous to the audience on purpose, it slowly becomes clear the origin of Lou's emotional struggle, and his inability to think rationally. And although part of you might feel slightly sympathetic toward the monster that Lou Ford is after the story unearths the violent and sexual events in his childhood, the story pays enough attention to the fact that he is more than just an angry person with a bad history, but in reality, he indeed has mental disabilities and sees the world through unsympathetic eyes.
One of the strongest aspects of this film is undoubtedly the cast. It's loaded with some of the best underrated actors in Hollywood: Casey Affleck, Simon Baker and Elias Koteas. Even Jessica Alba, who not a decade ago was starring in Honey and Into the Blue, does a great job and will hopefully stay on the path of taking risky roles.
As with any downward spiral, the body count grows. People get suspicious. Faces don't seem so friendly to Lou anymore. This evolution from being a well-respected law enforcement office to a guy people give crooked looks to is demonstrated flawlessly in this story; and by the third act, just when you think attitudes are going to turn sympathetic, the movie sticks to its solidly written character's motives and demented thought process.
In the end, what will be most striking to some viewers is one of the underlying themes this story uses: as small as your town is, and as much as everyone thinks they know everyone, the soft-spoken deputy might be a serial killer. And it's that notion that the movie accomplishes better than most, and does so by use of keeping things subtle, and deconstructing his psychosis little by little, until by the very end, both the audience and the characters in the story are very appalled at the true state-of-mind their deputy Lou Ford is and has been in since his childhood.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The disc has a trailer, as well as three “making-of” featurettes, each centering around and starring one of the actors discussing their characters: Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson, and Jessica Alba.
"The Killer Inside Me" is on sale September 28, 2010 and is rated R. Drama. Directed by Michael Winterbottom. Written by John Curran (screenplay), Jim Thompson (novel). Starring Casey Affleck, Jessica Alba, Kate Hudson, Ned Beatty, Simon Baker, Tom Bower.
