The Killer Inside Me

The eagerly awaited film adaptation of Jim Thompson's 1952 novel "The Killer Inside Me" that goes by the same name was screened at the Sundance Film Festival about a month ago in Park City, Utah and will most likely see a wide release later this year.

Directed by Michael Winterbottom ("Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story"), who seems to be staking some new thematic territory with this story of a soft-spoken, seemingly ignorant deputy sheriff in a small Texas town who's inner "sickness" is slowly bubbling to the surface, the film will certainly spark controversy in regards to film violence (especially against women) from such an unemotional character.

Indeed, there are already debates being had over an extended promotional trailer that was leaked to the web and specific scenes where the central character Lou Ford, played by Casey Affleck, subjects both his mistress (Jessica Alba) and fiancee (Kate Hudson) to serious beatings. Whether this debate will overshadow any critical praise the film receives in the coming year remains to be seen, but it is certainly worth tracking the film's festival circuit and the ensuing audience reactions.

It also remains to be seen how closely the film will follow the book, it's structure being that of first-person narration from Lou. He presents himself as an outsized intelligence casually roaming amongst a blissfully ignorant populace that has no idea a sociopath represents their local law enforcement. As a teenager, Lou sexually abused a young girl, but his elder brother Mike took the fall for him at the behest of their father who preferred to keep his more intelligent son out of jail. After his stint in prison, Mike is apparently murdered on the job by a construction baron and Lou plans to blackmail his son with Joyce, the prostitute he has begun a sadomasochistic relationship with.

However, Lou's long dormant violent nature explodes when he beats the baron's son to death and Joyce into a coma, leaving the scene to look like a passionate romance gone bad. From this point on, Lou is forced to kill in order to keep his secret from becoming public. Throughout the book, Lou is immensely unimpressed with the people around him and has dreamt of leaving for a more prosperous city, and in a sense he has taken on his recent killing spree as a means to freedom from this boredom.

Casey Affleck's role as Robert Ford in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" in 2007 seems like a warm-up and a good quality indicator for his performance as Lou Ford in 2010. The characters are from two completely different time periods and harbor two ends of the killer's spectrum, but both are hiding in plain sight. The role has the possibility of lifting Affleck's career to the next level.