Killer Inside Me (or You)?

Something tells me the violence (against women) depicted in 'The Killer Inside Me' will be the most talked about element of this movie. Probably, unfairly so. The snippets of performance I've seen have been riveting. I especially am drawn to Casey Affleck's realization of Lou Ford, which, from second to second, has me mesmerized.

John Patterson does a write-up at The Guardian. In regard to director Michael Winterbottom for his interpretation of Jim Thompson's novel, Patterson says:

He's been accused of misogyny thanks to a scene in which a prostitute (Jessica Alba) is murdered by Casey Affleck's Ford. It's a shockingly ugly event: precisely as in the book, Ford punches her face until it collapses in on itself. Once read, never forgotten: I felt ill when I read it and ill when I saw it; to me that suggests a successful adaptation.

I'm not sure what the point of such criticism is. That art should not imitate life? Do we not read or see reports of such atrocious acts in the news on a daily basis? Should movie makers hide their heads in the sand in response?

Or, should all movies avoid realism when depicting violence, opting for over-the-top comic book approach instead? Casey himself spoke out against such movies when talking with Aaron Hillis recently:

Q: Since the film's premiere at Sundance, some have criticized the violence for being too extreme or misogynistic.

A: There has to be space for those voices. In the world and what we do, making movies and media, I think they are valid—and, at times, righteous. In this case, they're barking up the wrong tree. The irresponsible films that contribute to a desensitization of the culture aren't like this movie. If you're going to show violence, make it realistic and upsetting. The movies that bother me are the ones in which killing of any kind seems common and OK. People crash into each other, punch each other, stab each other, shoot each other and don't get hurt, or there's nothing upsetting about it. It mattered a lot to me that this be a realistic depiction of violence.

Or, perhaps, the point of the criticism is, that, as was posited by Oscar Wilde, life imitates art. In which case some twisted individual may re-enact a horrible scene in a movie where someone is brutally killed.

Patterson continues:

Depicting a brutal, misogynistic act by an avowedly misogynistic character does not in itself endorse violence towards women, just as depicting murder doesn't condone it, and no artist should live in fear of the 0.1% of nutters who take works of fiction as instruction manuals.

I think this is just the beginning of the discourse.