The Killer
After an absence of three years, David Fincher returns to the fold with a compelling masterpiece about the technology of killing.
Making a killing: Michael Fassbender in Paris
The protagonist of David Fincher’s The Killer doesn’t say a whole lot. At least, he barely opens his mouth. Yet, just as he constantly monitors his vital statistics, so he shares his inner thoughts with the viewer. It’s like a mantra of motivation: “Whatever it takes, make sure you’re one of the few, not of the many,” he says. “Empathy is weakness”. But his opening statement sets the tone: “It’s amazing how physically exhausting it is to do nothing.” Of course, The Killer is never really doing nothing, he’s always preparing for the next kill. But he is a past master at patience. The moment has to be exactly right.
The last time Michael Fassbender had the title role in a genre piece like this was in Ridley Scott’s nasty and convoluted The Counsellor, in which the actor was likewise the nameless protagonist. In this film, The Killer has a number of aliases, such as Felix Unger, Oscar Madison, Sam Malone and Archibald Bünker, each one the name of a TV character blithely unrecognised by passport personnel. Nobody does genre like David Fincher. And we immediately recognise the calibre of top-drawer genre just by the noise that a punch makes: here, an upper-cut to the jaw does not sound like a pistol shot. In fact, everything that is so compelling about this forensic procedural is the meticulous attention to detail that Archie Bünker (let’s call him that) takes. In an age of CCTV, Bünker knows that he cannot hide, so he hides in plain sight. As another line in his voice-over instruction manual states: “Avoid being memorable.”
Archibald Bünker is not a nice man. He makes sure we know that by the statistics he regurgitates for our benefit: “140 million human beings are born every year, give or take. Worldwide population is approximately 7.8 billion. Every second, 1.8 people die. While 4.2 are born into that very same second. Nothing I’ve ever done will make any dent in these metrics.” And yet because of his sheer sense of self and professionalism, and for the wicked people he is presumably well-paid to dispense with, we pray that there is no kink in his painstaking modus operandi. We can but just sit back and marvel at his infallible expertise. As to be expected from Fincher, every location, costume change, frame and beat is consummately executed, echoing the gameplan of The Killer himself. In the catalogue of assassin attractions available on Netflix, The Killer stands out as a one-of-a-kind: a hypnotic, impeccably researched, genuinely intelligent and plasma-chilling ‘entertainment.’
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Arliss Howard, Charles Parnell, Kerry O'Malley, Sala Baker, Sophie Charlotte, Tilda Swinton, Emiliano Pernía, Gabriel Polanco.
Dir David Fincher, Pro William Doyle, Peter Mavromates and Ceán Chaffin, Screenplay Andrew Kevin Walker, based on the graphic novel by Alexis ‘Matz’ Nolent and Luc Jacamon, Ph Erik Messerschmidt, Pro Des Donald Graham Burt, Ed Kirk Baxter, Music Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Costumes Cate Adams, Sound Ren Klyce.
Netflix Studios/Plan B Entertainment/Boom! Studios/Panic Pictures-Netflix.
117 mins. USA. 2023. UK and US Rel: 10 November 2023. Cert. 15.
