Movie Review: The Killer

The opening credits to David Fincher’s The Killer prep you for everything the movie is about and everything the movie is about. The credits move at a fast and efficient pace, giving the viewer only seconds to see the names on screen. But they aren’t too fast. You can easily read each and every credit as if Fincher knew exactly how long it would take for the viewer to read and process the credits. They are swift and stylish and last what feels like less than 30 seconds, quickly getting us into the movie’s events. This is The Killer: a swift, stylish, exciting movie about a perfectionist.

Michael Fassbender stars as a man simply known as The Killer, a seasoned assassin who is very good at his job. He has done hundreds of hits, all with great success. His latest job in Paris seems like any ordinary job. He stakes the place out, sets up his gun perfectly, and waits patiently for the perfect shot at this target all while listening to The Smiths. But when the shot goes wrong, something he has never had to deal will, his world begins to spiral. Knowing his life is in danger, The Killer then goes on a globe-trotting mission to battle his employers in order to stay alive and get everything back on track.

The Killer is David Fincher 101 in terms of its filmmaking and themes. We’ve seen assassin movies before, we’ve seen revenge movies before, but none of them have looked or felt like The Killer. As we’ve come to expect with Fincher movies, it’s a technical marvel. The cinematography by Erik Messerschmidt is excellent and the slick editing by Kirk Baxter is some of the best of 2023.

The screenplay by Se7en scribe Andrew Kevin Walker, adapted from a graphic novel by Alexis “Matz” Nolent, is sensational and takes us deep into the mind of a trained killer by utilizing voiceover to give us The Killer’s inner monolog and showing us the mundane parts of being a globe-trotting killer, like eating McDonald’s or renting a car. We see how easy it is for a trained killer to exist amongst regular people due to our unassuming nature or being distracted by our phones while he gets coffee from Starbucks and makes orders using Amazon to get what he needs to accomplish the task at hand. It’s scary to think about, but Fincher and Walker give us plenty of humor and running bits that help make The Killer arguably Fincher’s funniest movie to date.

What struck me the most while watching The Killer was the similarities to our main character and Fincher. Fincher is known for his exacting and precise filmmaking. He takes everything into account with every shot; the angle, the lighting, the performance, the extra in the background, how someone holds a cup, and will do any number of takes to get everything right, which has resulted in Fincher becoming one of the best and most demanding directors working today. The Killer is about a perfectionist and what happens when a perfectionist makes a mistake. This is an assassin, exquisitely played by Fassbender, who is great at what he does. He has the patience to wait for the perfect shot, knows the exact getaway route so no one will catch him, knows where and who to look for when watching his back, and how to blend in without being noticed. He is three steps ahead of everyone and every step in his plan is researched and thought out perfectly. Fincher takes us into the mind of a perfectionist and, in a way, The Killer feels like Fincher’s most personal film to date.

There isn’t a lot of heart in The Killer, so don’t go in expecting a redemption story about an assassin who comes to terms with his reality after this failed attempt. Through his monologs, The Killer has to keep reminding himself that what he is doing is not personal, it’s just part of the job and that is what The Killer is about. We are watching an exacting, cold-blooded killer try to right a ship the only way he knows how without leaving any stone unturned. The Killer explores this in the best way possible, with Fincher’s masterful direction, a great lead performance, thrilling fight scenes, and tons of tension, humor, and mystery.

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