Glen Powell has been the next star in making for a few years, a sort of poor-man's Ryan Gosling. But, if I'm being honest, other than Richard Linklater's Hit Man (2024), the movies where he was the leading man (The Running Man, Twisters) have been largely underwhelming. In How to Make a Killing, a loose adaptation of 1949's superior dark comedy, Kind Hearts and Coronets, he plays Becket Redfellow, a man raised by a single mother, who was banished out of her affluent family for getting pregnant as a teenager. He then decides to murder all members of his family who stand between him and the billions of inheritance he believes are rightfully his.
Writer/director John Patton Ford (whose Emily the Criminal was an excellent social commentary about contemporary unaffordability) struggles to balance the satire with the thriller-drama elements. If Becket could at least establish his cousins as horrible people, then his actions may come across as more acceptable. As is, he murders without remorse, coming across as a depraved sociopath, one whose charm isn't substantial enough to cover up his flaws. Not even the presence of the sexy Margaret Qualley, who pops in and out of the narrative periodically, can salvage Ford's muddled tone.
How to Make a Killing is a missed opportunity. I can only imagine that, perhaps, Sam Raimi or the Coen brothers, would've done the material more justice. I hope Powell soon selects a script worthy of his charm, for if he keeps striking out as he has been, will he even be relevant at the decade's conclusion?
☆☆
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