The Killer, 2023.
Directed by David Fincher.
Starring Michael Fassbender, Arliss Howard, Charles Parnell, Gabriel Polanco, Kerry O’Malley, Emiliano Pernia, Sala Baker, Sophie Charlotte, Tilda Swinton, Monique Ganderton, and Kellan Rhude.
SYNOPSIS:
After a fateful near-miss, an assassin battles his employers, and himself, on an international manhunt he insists isn’t personal.
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, The Killer wouldn’t exist.
Known for being as methodical and precise as the titular contract assassin played by Michael Fassbender in The Killer, David Fincher (adapting the French graphic novel by Alexis Nolent, which featured illustrations by Luc Jacamon, and given the screenplay treatment by Andrew Kevin Walker), while still crafting a slick and stylish look inside the psyche of a hitman, is more laid back here and having fun.
Working once again with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross to create another ominous soundscape, there is a scene here where The Killer shoots one of his enemies multiple times with a nail gun, subsequently muttering that he now has three “nine inch nails” stuck in his body, referencing the electronic rock band Trent Reznor has fronted for decades. Similarly, there are darkly funny throwaway narration lines, such as The Killer wondering what it would be like if one of his storage rooms filled with weapons, tools, disguises, and more ended up on an episode of the reality TV show Storage Wars.
It is equally unfortunate that David Fincher doesn’t fully commit to gallows humor, especially considering The Killer is about an assassin who, despite having found much success and money in the world of contract killing, is a bumbling idiot here. The opening sequence set in Paris sees The Killer extensively rambling about the self-inflicted rules he follows to maintain professionalism and get the job done (mostly amounting to preparation details, an insistence that his work is not personal, and the creed that empathy leads to vulnerability which is a weakness) with the killer punchline being that when it’s time to take his shot, he misses. In that respect, it could be taken as David Fincher suggesting that all this icy edginess is pointless, the opposite of badass, and doesn’t always correlate to skillful precision.
From there, The Killer travels back to his Dominican Republic safe house only to find that his work has come home, with his significant other brutalized and hospitalized. This sets him off on an episodic quest to kill everyone involved, complete with more traveling and an assortment of airport aliases. That’s the extent of the story here. Instead, David Fincher is committed to immersing viewers in his signature meticulous style, going for “cool” above all else. The Killer regularly listens to The Smiths, frequently disguises himself as drivers for different services to worm his way into buildings of interest, and consistently kills cleverly even if something about his attempt generally goes wrong (at one point, he finds himself in a physical battle against a Floridian bruiser that is visceral and brutally entertaining, making use of nearly every household object within range).
In the hands of most other directors, this would be a case of all style and no substance. However, David Fincher manages to keep all of this from feeling generic, even if the story is somewhat empty, through slick direction and a sharp script simultaneously shining a light on The Killer’s psyche, but also in a half-hearted, darkly funny way showing that the cynicism on display is not to be taken too seriously. It also helps that Michael Fassbender quickly sells the character’s cold, emotionless state alongside the hitman shenanigans.
The Killer is nowhere near one of David Fincher’s most outstanding works but showcases that even without much of a story to work with, he can still craft something compulsively watchable just through his obsessively specific and stylized direction. This is a series of nastily entertaining murders that accomplishes its goal of exploring the mind of a contract killer, nothing more, nothing less.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
