THE STORY – Disowned at birth by his wealthy family, Becket Redfellow will stop at nothing to reclaim his inheritance, no matter how many relatives stand in his way.
THE CAST – Glen Powell, Margaret Qualley, Jessica Henwick, Bill Camp, Zach Woods, Topher Grace & Ed Harris
THE TEAM – John Patton Ford (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 105 Minutes
There’s something deliciously wicked about watching a movie that opens with its antihero sitting in a prison cell, calmly confessing the entire story that led him to this pivotal moment of reckoning to a priest with just a few hours left before his execution. That’s how “How To Make A Killing,” the new film from “Emily The Criminal” filmmaker John Patton Ford, begins. Becket Redfellow (Glen Powell) is staring down his fate and narrates, in smooth, wisecracking voiceover, how it all went so wrong. Or right. Depending on how you look at it. Patton Ford’s examination of the blind selfishness of the greedy and, by extension, the rich and powerful can be a devilishly fun time or a dark, cynical slog with nothing revelatory to say. It’s all a matter of perspective.
Right from the jump, this pitch-black comedy wastes no time establishing its tone: darkly charming, faintly absurd, and morally slippery. Through flashback, Becket recounts how his mother was kicked out of the obscenely wealthy Redfellow dynasty by his grandfather, Whitelaw Redfellow, initially obscured in shadow, later revealed to be Ed Harris. Disowned at birth and having to make it all on his own in New York, Becket grows up on the outside of a $28 billion empire, the family mansion looming large in the wealthiest corner of Long Island. It’s something to obtain, as Becket once promised his mother that he would one day get what was rightfully his. Now, as a full-grown man who has thought about nothing else ever since his childhood, Becket’s plan to reclaim his inheritance is as simple as it is deranged: remove every relative next in the succession line standing in his way.
What follows is a slick, confident descent into accidental (and sometimes not-so-accidental) murder, as Becket either willingly or circumstantially dispatches members of his own bloodline. If this all sounds too similar to “Kind Hearts and Coronets,” that’s because the story is definitely inspired by the 1949 British film by Robert Hamer and John Dighton, with shades of last year’s “No Other Choice” also lingering vividly in audience members’ minds. Unfortunately, “How To Make A Killing” is a pale imitation of both despite promising elements at Patton Ford’s disposal.
The FBI grows suspicious after the first two deaths in the Redfellow family, and with each subsequent kill, Becket inches closer to unimaginable wealth, and, as we already know from the framing device, to prison. That structural choice can feel very frustrating. By revealing early on that Becket gets caught, the film sacrifices suspense for inevitability. The question isn’t whether he’ll be stopped, but whether he has something else up his sleeve, or if he’s simply out of moves and succumbing to his fate with regret. At times, that relationship between inevitability and surprise works. At others, it makes the story feel episodic, as though we’re ticking through the Redfellow succession line waiting for the next domino to fall.
Still, Powell is the film’s secret weapon. Much like its protagonist, the movie may be doing more than it has to, but Powell grounds the absurdity with his innate charisma and an ever-likable screen presence. His Becket is equal parts smirking opportunist and a wounded outsider (despite the fact he’s doing pretty well for himself even without the family fortune, all things considered). With a great smile and looks that can kill, he embodies the film’s central, deeply cynical thesis: as long as you’re charming enough, the rich and powerful can get away with just about anything.
The film flirts with having a moral compass, but that’s all it does. Beneath the farce lies a serious moral calculation about learning to value what you already have. That conflict becomes more pungent through Warren Redfellow (Bill Camp), Becket’s uncle and the one family member who offers him something his grandfather never gave his mother: opportunity, mentorship, and genuine care. Camp is the kind of actor who can elevate any project he’s part of, and he once again finds a way to give the film he’s in its most human element. Under Warren’s warm guidance, Becket is forced to choose: accept his circumstances as they are, with humility and grace, or continue his blood-soaked quest. It’s here that the film becomes most intriguing. While Becket gets closer to achieving his goal, he considers stopping, and it’s here that Patton Ford seems to challenge him with an inherently human question: why stop now? After all, he’s already come so far.
The supporting cast is stacked with tons of delicious talent: Zach Woods, Topher Grace, and Raff Law each bring their own eccentric flair as the various Redfellow cousins to Becket and the heirs he must dispose of. Yet none of them are fleshed out enough for us to care about their potential demise fully. Each encounter with Becket is too segmented, with each of the actors overplaying their obnoxiously affluent personalities in a tone that feels disconnected from the rest of the movie, making the overall story feel like a jumbled collection of eccentric ideas that never fully coalesce. Margaret Qualley and Jessica Henwick fare better as the women orbiting Becket’s destruction, one representing his past crush who keeps coming back into his life at inopportune moments, the other his present love interest who, like Camp causes Becket to question how far he should go when all that life has to offer him is staring him, lovingly, right back in the face for the man he already is.
Following his debut feature, Patton Ford ensures that “How To Make A Killing” moves at a confident, smooth pace. Its slickness is undeniable, thanks in large part to Powell’s magnetic performance. But that same polish occasionally glances over the story’s more compelling moral undercurrents. The satire bites, but rarely deep enough to draw any real blood. The drama should resonate, but just as it threatens to become profound, the film pivots back toward a more absurdist style. And yet, it’s hard not to enjoy yourself. Powell’s relatable good-guy charm casts doubt in our minds about whether Becket will make the right decision, even when the evidence suggests he won’t. The film understands that tension and exploits it well enough for this to play decently at home with little to no emotional investment from the viewer. We know Becket is a murderer. And yet, we also want to see him win.
By the time we reach the end of the story and return to that prison cell, the film has kind of predictably built itself up to a fairly logical conclusion, which strangely robs it of any of the tension it was working so hard earlier to establish, leaving the entire experience feeling hollow and banal in its messaging. As someone who absolutely loves any kind of a crime film, “How To Make A Killing” can be entertaining at times as a morality play wrapped in designer suits and generational spite. It’s juggling a lot more than it needs to, and it never fully synthesizes its most perceptive ideas, but it’s powered by another star performance from Powell, keeping it barely afloat.
