R | 1h 58m | Thriller | November 10, 2023
David Fincher, a cinematic master of the thriller genre, is known for directing meticulously plotted thrillers teeming with amoral characters that are hard to get a bead on.
“The Killer,” based on a French graphic novel of the same name, with a script by Andrew Kevin Walker (with whom Fincher re-teams here for the first time since 1995’s “Seven”) is no different.
While there are no real plot surprises, “The Killer” is a visually riveting, emotionally muted story about a professional hitman, the overall quality of which is elevated by a star-studded cast. It’s a film I started watching on Netflix and immediately regretted not seeing on the big screen; it’s got big movie presence.
Botched Job
We start off observing a most-likely military-trained, anonymous assassin (he’s top-shelf in the eliminator business). It’s been a week of methodical planning, preparation, and sheltering in the abandoned office building across the street from the swanky Parisian hotel where his target is expected to check in fairly soon.
We spend time living in the assassin’s head via a series of voiceover monologues. We learn that he used to book AirBnB’s for work, but super-hosts have a penchant for nanny-cams, which is not ideal in the hitman-for-hire game.
His set-up is on-point, and while his talent might be a preternatural ability to stay rigorously disciplined, there’s probably only so much waiting around, listening to music on headphones, dealing with sleep deprivation, and cheap fast-food a man can take before boredom leads to creeping complacency. And so when the opportunity presents itself, he takes aim at his sniper-target (who’s dallying with a dominatrix) pulls the trigger—and misses.
Recognizing his escape window has shrunk exponentially (what with hotel personnel running around screaming), and there’s zero time for a follow-up shot, the killer (Michael Fassbender) thinks, “Well, this is new,” and immediately defaults to his rehearsed backup escape plans. He vamooses from both the scene and the city.
By the time he’s flown to one of his safe houses in the Dominican Republic, his murder-gaffe has caught up with him and the hunter has now become the hunted. An international manhunt ensues.
However, the outfit he worked for up until now, in trying to tie up loose ends, makes the grave error of messing with his girlfriend in a variety of horrible ways, and our anti-hero turns the tables again: Now the hunted hunter hunts the hunters hunting him.
Overall
“The Killer’s” narrative is a fairly standard-issue “John-Wick”-ish, “Terminal-List”-y, more-noir-no-explosions revenge thriller. The killer kills his handler-lawyer Hodges (Charles Parnell of “Top Gun 2”), and a couple of fellow assassins known as “The Brute” (Sala Baker) and “The Expert” (Tilda Swinton). Claybourne, the billionaire client who started the whole mess (Arliss Howard), is let off with a warning.
Plot predictability is not an issue, due to the fact that one finds oneself glimpsing a fascinating place, as dark as it might be: getting a guided tour of an assassin’s mind, with descriptions and explanations of the job requirements. Such as how disappearing a body is quite labor-intensive.
The killer talks often about not letting things get personal. But the movie is about what happens when things do become personal for a man of his particular skill set.
Theoretically, after the botched Paris hit, he could have used his squirreled-away funds and the unlimited supply of fake identities stashed in storage units based on 1970s’ sitcom characters (Archibald Bünker, George Jefferson) to disappear for good. But he goes on the revenge path because having a harmed woman will tend to do that to a man. Even one, who, Grinch-like, has a heart two sizes too small.
Fassbender came out of retirement and nails this role. He doesn’t speak much, but his voiceovers, mostly repetitions of assassin mottos, protocol reminders, and affirmations, are revelatory. As in, “If I also ran litanies in my mind like that, about the game-plan of my particular life choices, it might up my game in interesting ways.”
“The Killer” doesn’t attempt to humanize the killer. And while probably only other actual assassins are going to be able to find common ground with the character, there are lessons to be learned. For example, I personally like to find out about the nuts, bolts, and methodologies that beget a standard of excellence in any field.
Fincher shows us the requisite talent for this career choice, underlining it by having Tilda Swinton’s assassin describe the personal revelation that demonstrated to her that she was to the assassin-manor born. Which made for some post-movie musings about how we all end up doing the things we do. “The Killer” is a well-made, fascinating watch. See it on the big screen.
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‘The Killer’
Director: David Fincher
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Tilda Swinton, Charles Parnell, Arliss Howard, Sala Baker, Sophie Charlotte
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour, 58 minutes
Release date: Nov. 10, 2023
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
