Review by Nicholas Porteous for Mr. Will Wong
In David Fincher‘s The Killer, Michael Fassbender is a nihilistic hitman trying his best to be a cold, calculating, indifferent terminator. Unfortunately, one mental lapse and a poorly-delivered bullet threatens to undo his entire world, and he needs to shoot his way through the hitman hierarchy to stay alive. As a response to Fincher’s last movie–the slow-paced, heady biopic Mank, The Killer feels like a hearty reminder that–don’t you worry–he can still make stylish films about murderers like nobody else.
Right up front, the slick opening titles hit like a mac truck of sustained sexiness. They’re a foghorn indicating “this is back-to-basics Finch!” If your eyes light up at the mention of Se7en, Zodiac, etc etc, –Welcome! The Killer, much like those aforementioned classics, is drowning in visual detail and exquisite sound design. Every frame and every movement is clearly the work of an obsessive. It’s easy to read Fassbender‘s nameless hitman as an embodiment of Fincher‘s well-established storytelling persona. Precise, methodical, dark, careful and cunning. A perfectionist, but ultimately human.
The Killer presents as an intensely watchable Hitman Thriller–and probably the best unintentional adaptation of the Hitman game series (even the font is identical). But as the layers are peeled back and Fassbender’s inner monologues blur together, the Movie reveals itself to be more of a character study that just so happens to be about a Hitman. Its whizzbang exterior gives way to a stark, anticlimactic core. It’s hollow–but by design. Fassbender never pretends to be anything more than a professional pawn, and there’s something puzzling about the statement Fincher is ultimately going for here. As a simple tale of one unknowable man trying to survive by killing everyone around him, it largely succeeds, but I’m convinced there’s a deeper meaning locked behind a keypad for which I haven’t found the code (or the fob replicator)–at least not yet.
As a Fincher fanatic, this only means I’m going to have to keep watching it–likely when it lands on Netflix next month. If you have the chance to catch it at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in the next couple of weeks and you have any fondness for Fincher, Fassbender, or you’re just in the mood for a few phenomenal minutes of Tilda Swinton, absolutely go see it.
THE KILLER is in select theatres October 27, 2023 and on Netflix November 10, 2023.
For advertising opportunites please contact mrwill@mrwillwong.com