After a seeming slowdown in his career in the 2010s, it seems David Fincher has returned with a couple of releases in recent years—first with Mank, and now with Michael Fassbender left right and center, The Killer. Does it capture some of the heights of his prior films, or did things peak with Gone Girl?
Well, off the bat, we can definitely see Fincher’s technical flourishes coming in, with stylized credits bringing back Fight Club to my mind. The film saw its main release on Netflix but I saw it theatrically—with there being a few shots and touches that definitely feel like they were made with a big screen in mind, even if the structure doesn’t that much, as we’ll get to soon. From tight noir-drenched Parisian streets to South American jungles, there’s definitely a variety to the locations, giving each ‘chapter’ its own visual feel.
Our protagonist, who is never given a name confirmed to be is own, is a somewhat nihilistic contract killer played by Mr. Fassbender—who always preaches to himself about the importance of detaching from empathy, the better to get his jobs done. After a lengthy preamble showing all the measures he takes, all of the precision he keeps in mind…it takes one bullet to go slightly off-angle to make a job go into shambles, and from there, things spiral out of control for him until they do indeed get very personal.
From there it’s Fassbender working up a chain to get revenge, and as far as characters go, it’s the secondary ones who leave the most impact. Chris Parnell plays a verbose and overwhelmingly intense overseer of assassins who gets removed from proceedings way too early, and Tilda Swinton makes the most of every moment of screen time she’s on to present a far more emotive killer to contrast our main lead.
Individual moments are well done here—there’s a bone-crunchingly brutal fight about two-thirds in that’s probably the highlight, with Fincher’s sense of dark humor showing through, and gives the feeling of a rather more realistic counter to the John Wick films. Our killer may have great attention to detail, he may be a professional, but he still slips up and sometimes has to improvize by the skin of his teeth—and in those moments is where the film shines.
But unfortunately we’re still left with the feeling of where his character is going, and the answer is, nowhere really much. The last ‘chapter’ feels…anticlimactic, and as episodic as the film feels, it still wouldn’t pass much for a season finale. Don’t expect much catharsis or resolution, nor any real sense of growth from our lead. Fassbender does the best with what’s given, certainly selling the image of a cold-hearted killer, but with all the things our villain protagonist does, there doesn’t seem to be much learned or questioned. I think there’s an attempted at some dark satire on outsourcing here, but it all stumbles by then.
It’s definitely not Fincher’s best—don’t expect it to overtake Zodiac in rankings. For some decently directed adrenaline rushes and hitman action, it definitely has some offerings to give, but there definitely feels like something got dropped from the script. You’ll have to take style over substance here, and while the style is competent, I’m not sure if it’ll make up for the sense of something missing as if made to vanish by a sniper’s bullet.
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