How to Make a Killing

Grade: B-

How to Make a Killing is a memory movie, meaning the majority of what we see has already happened. The lead character is recounting a story, which – inevitably – means that voice-over narration is extremely prevalent. It gets in the way. It also keeps intermittently cutting back to the present. I’d rather we had just taken in the plot chronologically and regularly, only finding out near the end that the whole thing was someone telling a story. Million Dollar Baby employed this technique, with all of the action being from Morgan Freeman writing a letter, but we’re not made aware of that until the last few moments.

That’s what I didn’t like. On the other side of the coin, there’s Glen Powell who weaves a tangled web but unfalteringly keeps his cool when people seem to be close to the truth. Margaret Qualley was born to play a leggy femme fatale. She walks on click-clacking heels, has a deep smoky voice, and shows up to blackmail Powell. We have an appealing Jessica Henwick (Cuckoo, The Royal Hotel, Glass Onion) as a love interest who unfortunately can’t know the real deal. Bill Camp, Topher Grace, and Ed Harris are well-used. These are the elements that worked.

We first meet Powell (as Becket Redfellow) in prison, just a few hours away from execution. He is meeting with a priest, which brings us to the “here’s why I’m here – let’s go back” moment. We cut to his childhood backstory, where his mother had him as a teenager. When we catch up to the adult Becket, he’s working at a men’s formalwear store. His childhood crush, Julia (Qualley), newly engaged, stops by, just passing through at his job that’s going nowhere.

The Redfellows are a wealthy family, and Becket is in line to inherit billions. He’s way down in the list – unless something were to happen to the seven or eight relatives who are before him. From here, we watch the series of individual cousin pick-offs, which includes Topher Grace, who is very energetic and funny in his one scene. Becket sparks up a relationship with the former girlfriend of one of the deceased (played by Jessica Henwick). She liked him ever since she met him.

Becket, who had previously never done anything like this, is uncannily good at these murders, trucking along like a modern day Patrick Bateman or Tom Ripley. He’s a hit, having his cake and eating it too. He has a great new girlfriend, and his uncle (Bill Camp) has saved him from the suit store and given him a “nepotism hire” at his company. In one of many instances where it appears the other shoe has dropped and the jig is up, only for it to have been about something else – the same two FBI agents keep showing up, mainly to tell him that he’s close to earning an inheritance, or that his extended family has had some bad luck lately, so be careful. 

Nobody appears to suspect anything, until Qualley as Julia comes back into the woodwork. She knows more than he wishes she did, and wants a piece of the pie in exchange for silence. The two main women characters are a bit constrained by plot devices, but the actresses playing them are strong. It’s hard to buy the tonal whiplash of Julia going from sweet and innocent in the early scenes to slimy and conniving, and Henwick doesn’t get to shine too much due to being in the dark about what’s really going on.

I didn’t love the ending, as it goes against what Becket wants or likes. However, the story – annoyingly constructed as it is – remains an interesting one that kept my attention. I enjoyed many of the plot developments, I like all of the actors, and the quirky, chirpy final song on the soundtrack serves us a fine, flourishy sendoff. How to Make a Killing has enough positives to snag a mild recommendation.

Grade: B-