![]() Fincher and Walker rush the final act, especially the shortest epilogue ever, but that complaint may fade on second viewing as I believe it fits the no-nonsense approach of the title character.Īll of this might make “The Killer” sound like a drag, but it’s worth noting that it’s actually one of Fincher's funniest films. There’s a phenomenal running bit about the assassin’s fake names. This is not a story of redemption but precision it's what happens when one of the most precise people in the world makes a mistake. That’s not an item in this character’s go-bag, and his completely cynical and procedural approach to murder will turn some people off. When he snapped one victim's neck, I heard a gasp in my film festival audience, like they expected mercy. I kept expecting “The Killer” to try and soften its leading man, but there’s no escaping that he is a cold-blooded murderer. Of course, some will question why we're watching an amoral monster try to save himself, and it’s worth noting that Fincher and Walker don’t shy away from this. ![]() It’s not a film that should be rough around the edges-it succeeds because it’s as finely tuned as one of The Killer’s jobs. One senses they all have the same perfectionism as the notoriously detailed filmmaker, and this is the kind of production that rewards that sense of detail. On a technical level, “The Killer” hums like few films of its type in recent years just because of the pedigree of the team behind it. ![]() It helps a great deal that he brings along several of his most accomplished collaborators, including cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt (“ Gone Girl”), editor Kirk Baxter (“ The Social Network”), and even Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross to handle the score. One can sense Fincher's passion for this project in every frame as he returns to themes that have long interested him: obsession, perfectionism, and power. Arliss Howard, Charles Parnell, and Tilda Swinton co-star, but this is basically a one-man show, the tale of an icy assassin forced to get a little hot. But the man who has told himself never to improvise and always to keep things from getting personal goes in the other direction, trying to burn those who came into his house and those who hired them. He has stocked storage units in multiple cities and enough money in foreign accounts to never be seen again. It’s here where The Killer essentially breaks his own rules. The clean-up crew has already come for both of them. He immediately knows what this means and races home to the Dominican Republic to find his partner clinging to life. And then something happens that never has happened to this film’s “hero”-he misses, hitting an innocent bystander instead of the intended victim. It’s a deliberate peek into the mind of a murderer, someone who justifies his actions by noting how many people are born and die each day-anything he does is just a drop in a massive bucket.Īfter a few days in Paris, The Killer’s target finally appears in the penthouse across the street. In this character-defining prologue, Fincher and writer Andrew Kevin Walker (“ Seven”) set the pace that nothing is rushed. ![]() But he generally tries to blend in, noting that he picked his disguise as a German tourist because most French people avoid German tourists. He keeps an eye on the café below, dips out to McDonald's for protein, and listens to The Smiths on repeat (about a dozen songs from the landmark band give the film an incredible soundtrack and add to its deadpan humor). “The Killer” opens with a lengthy voiceover scene as we watch this assassin on a multi-day stakeout in Paris. Of course, it helps to have a leading man who’s proven himself adept at playing soulless monsters before and there are elements of David from “ Prometheus” in what Michael Fassbender brings to Fincher's nameless protagonist.
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