You Kill Me is a highly charming character comedy starring Ben Kingsley, Luke Wilson and Téa Leoni. Screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeeley previously won an Emmy for the HBO biopic on Peter Sellers. If, like me, you appreciate Wes Anderson and the Coen Brothers, do get mental help, but don’t miss this flick.

Kingsley plays Frank Falenczyk, the black-sheep nephew of a Polish mob patriarch struggling for Buffalo’s snow plowing contract against a rising Irish gangster played by Dennis Farina. Frank is an alcoholic who has to throw a vodka bottle down his front steps in the morning to motivate himself to clear a path to his car. When he slumbers drunkenly through an important hit, his uncle sends him to San Francisco and Alcoholics Anonymous to sober up.

Frank the hard-bitten gangster shows up at a Care Bare-ish Al-Anon meeting in San Francisco, and his lazy Susan of sighs and eye rolls are worth the price of admission alone. As Frank recovers from his drinking problem, he chooses his deity; it’s iconic, and not one you’d expect. Pierce Brosnan mined some of the same material in The Matador, but he’s smirky, while Kingsley is haunted and beaten-down.

Wilson plays a Golden Gate toll collector who becomes Frank’s mentor. He’s gay, but it’s completely incidental. Leoni helps redeem Frank, learning a little about killing along the way. Bill Pullman is fantastic as Frank’s strange mob handler. He sets Frank up with a job in a mortuary and isn’t above turning Frank’s powerful glare upon the murderous business of San Francisco real estate.

Sir Ben struggles with his working-class accent, but he inhabits Frank like few actors can. His interpretation is vastly different from the maniacal gangster in Sexy Beast. The movie sounds dark, and with CGI snow spreading over a Buffalo midnight like reflections off a disco ball, it sometimes is. But it’s also deeply hopeful, absurdist, and damn funny.

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