The Killer Inside Me (Michael Winterbottom, 2010)

A remake of a 1976 adaptation of Jim Thompson's noir crime novel, Winterbottom's film adds nice photography and modern graphic violence and little else to the story of a psychotic Texan sheriff who gradually gets entangled in the web of deceit he has woven. It's a film most out of character for Winterbottom, until now a director of well-intentioned docudramas such as Welcome to Sarajevo or In This World, or entertainment with a brain, such as 24 Hour Party People or Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story. You don't expect him to stoop to a remake, go gratuitous with the on-screen brutality - although for all the accusations of misogyny levelled at the film, it has to be understood that depicting a woman-hating sadist is not the same as condoning one - or put Jessica Alba in a film. Casey Affleck does put in an unsettling performance as the softly-spoken killer, but it also feels a less nuanced recycling of his character in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Winterbottom clearly wants to make a serious point about the casualness with which film too often treats real brutality. It's just that here the touch is too heavy-handed.

5/10