The Killer Inside Me

While The Killer Inside Me isn't director Michael Winterbottom's first foray into film noir, it is singular in its brutality. Winterbottom deftly captures author Jim Thompson's spiritually empty 1950s Texas desert milieu, with its oil derricks jutting up against its manicured lawns. Casey Affleck, as sociopathic deputy sheriff Lou Ford, delivers a chilling blend of superficial affability and coldly demented calculation. Affleck is supported by a team of resourceful character actors (including Elias Koteas, Tom Bower, and Ned Beatty), though Jessica Alba as Joyce, a prostitute and Ford's lover, lacks the depth to suggest her character's inner trauma. Despite Affleck's excellent work, the script doesn't delve very deep into Ford's twisted mind, so the character isn't as darkly fascinating as in Thompson's book. But Winterbottom does capture the underlying decrepitude of small-town 1950s America and the soul-sickness at the heart of the novel. This is exemplified by the unsparingly dramatized beating that Ford bestows upon Joyce—Winterbottom shows the disfiguring effect of every vicious blow. Some will be offended, but, really, an adaptation that's true to the spirit of Thompson's work should make you want to take a shower afterwards.