Loosely based on the 1949 British film Kind Hearts and Coronets, How To Make A Killing tells the tragic tale of Becket Redfellow (Glen Powell), a member of the ultra-rich and powerful Redfellow family…kind of. In reality, he and his mother, Mary (Nell Williams), were disowned by patriarch Whitelaw (Ed Harris) after she fell in love with a cellist and got pregnant out of wedlock at 18.
Rather than the lavish luxuries of the family’s Long Island mansion, the two were forced to live a blue-collar lifestyle in New Jersey until she unfortunately died a few years later. At the urging of her dying words, Becket grows up and begins an elaborate plan to reclaim the 28 billion dollar inheritance he was denied: by killing off his seven other family members.
I am a big fan of writer/director John Patton Ford’s previous film, Emily the Criminal. That said, I was a bit worried when the film opened with the increasingly tired “Let me tell you how I got here” narrative structure, down to the recurring narration all throughout. (The film operates as an extended flashback, with Beckett already in prison, recounting his life story to a priest as he awaits execution.)
“By the third act of How to Make a Killing, Powell delivers the much-needed nuance and sheds the cool factor to hammer the whole thing home.”
However, Glen Powell does manage to carry the whole film with his charming, charismatic performance. At times, it does feel like Powell’s likability is at odds with the moral ambiguity inherent in Becket as a character. By the third act of How to Make a Killing, Powell delivers the much-needed nuance and sheds the cool factor to hammer the whole thing home.
As Becket kills his way up the family tree, Ford makes sure to give each member of the Redfellow clan their own unique charm and quirks. They’re not all the same mustache-twirling supervillains; their versions of blissful privilege run the gamut from drunk frat bros to pseudo-philanthropists, all from a great ensemble cast. Zach Woods is particularly hysterical as Becket’s cousin Noah, a photographer who delusionally sees himself as the white Basquiat.
A ridiculously coiffed Topher Grace is just as hilarious in his brief appearance as another cousin, the megachurch pastor Steven, with a litany of external issues. Additionally, both Bill Camp and Ed Harris operate on opposite ends of the familial spectrum; the former as Uncle Warren, the one family member who happens to be a genuinely kind figure. The latter, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have a soul to begin with.
Along the way, Becket figures out that his biggest adversary is not within his family, but in Julia, his old childhood friend/former flame, whose own ambitions end up greatly complicating both his murder plot and his budding romance with the down-to-earth Ruth (Jessica Henwick). Julia is genuinely enamoured by Becket’s ambitious pursuits, but Ruth is the one who brings to mind that the better things in life are the smaller things. Margaret Qualley brings a femme-fatale energy to her performances that makes her so much fun to watch whenever she appears on screen, while Henwick brings a real warmth to the film.
Overall, How to Make a Killing is a very good time. The film admittedly does feel messy at times, particularly when it comes to rushing through characters with significantly less development than the rest. Additionally, the film’s “eat the rich”-esque social satire isn’t really doing anything more biting than last year’s coincidentally similar No Other Choice. However, How to Make a Killing is lively and fun enough that it doesn’t fully take away from the story at hand.
