'KILLING THEM SOFTLY': James Gandolfini plays a stone-cold
killer. The Weinstein Company  When director Andrew Dominik
asked James Gandolfini if he'd be interested in playing a
boozing, whoring Mafia hit man in his new film, "Killing Them
Softly," the actor said no, thanks.  The character of Mickey
"had some overtones, similarities to people I've played in the
past," says Mr. Gandolfini, referring to Tony Soprano, the New
Jersey mob boss he portrayed for six seasons in the HBO series
"The Sopranos."   Based on the 1974 novel "Cogan's Trade," by
George V. Higgins, the film stars Brad Pitt as Jackie Cogan, a
mobster called upon to investigate a robbery at an illegal card
game run by an amiable thug named Markie ( Ray Liotta ). After
discovering who committed the crime—a pair of lowlifes played by
Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn —Cogan ropes in Mickey but soon
realizes he's not quite up for the job.  The theme of the film,
says Mr. Pitt in an interview, is that everybody's on his own:
"These are the rules, and