An Intro with an eerie tone. We see weapons. Pictures of a crime. Tension. The newest David Fincher film ‘The Killer’ premiered at the 80th Venice Film Festival upon its release on Netflix this October.
We meet Michael Fassbender as ‘The Killer’. He’s a lonely assassin. Spends all day sitting in an empty apartment. Waits for his target. Plays the Smiths. Does Yoga. Plays the Smiths again. He is cold hearted and has his principles. No empathy. No remorse. He never misses. Until he does. After messing up a target he must escape. The Hunter becomes the hunted. His conclusion: he must get rid of those who might come for him first.
The editing in this is marvelous. While the film is slow and takes things step by step, the editing somehow feels faster paced. You cannot look away. Every shot feels thought out. There isn’t a lot happening, but when it does, it gets its audience’s fullest attention.
‘The Killer’ also delivers daunting scenes that feel cruel (which is something you might expect from a Fincher film). But then again, we also have a few scenes that made the audience light up in a little nervous laughter. Questioning oneself whether it’s cool to laugh over what we see on screen.
We have a protagonist who seems cold-hearted. He isn’t charming. Not really relatable (I mean if he is to you, I’d be a little scared). He barely talks to other characters. He does talk to us though. In this way this felt very Dexter-esque, a Killer with a constant inner monologue. Minus the charm Dexter, for example, had to offer. Nevertheless, the inner monologue makes us understand him and his actions as well. We get why he mentions his own rule book repeatedly. There are many scenes where we understand that he certainly isn’t as cold as he thinks he is. Even in the beginning when he misses his target, we see him doubt himself.
The sound design is haunting and something you may expect from a Fincher film. The fight scenes we see here, especially a certain one with a Bodybuilder are so fun to watch because they’re so well executed.
This feels more like a character study. To me, sadly, I didn’t quite get warm with him. I didn’t expect him to be an empathetic or relatable person, yet I somehow needed more to hold onto him. Care about the assassin we follow along for 118 Minutes.
Nonetheless, this is incredibly well done. Michael Fassbender does an excellent job at playing our Killer and maybe if you stop trying to take his character serious and realize he’s doubting himself, it’ll become way more fun to watch. One thing I can agree on with our Killer here, is that the Smiths truly rock.
Overall, I think we can all agree that Fincher truly remains to be the master of suspense. (And now that the Killer is almost out and brings Fincher back to the crime scenes. I must do my duty here and ask Mr. Fincher to finally work on a third Season of the Mindhunter.)