The Killer (2023)

Arguably David Fincher’s most accessible film in a while, The Killer is a noirish action-thriller that elevates the material to deliver a truly memorable genre entry, centred around a standout performance by  Michael Fassbender.

Premise:  After a job goes wrong, an unnamed assassin (Michael Fassbender) finds he’s been deemed a loose end that needs to dealt with, resulting in him embarking on a globetrotting vendetta of his own.

Review:

The tagline for The Killer is ‘Execution is everything’, which is funny, because exactly the same thing could be said about the film itself.  On paper, the plot to The Killer sounds like a story we’ve seen a million times before, but the way that it’s executed here is what makes this film so enthralling,

The entire film is told from the perspective of Michael Fassbender’s unnamed assassin, and it’s his performance that makes this film what it is.  The movie’s tone is set in the opening ‘Chapter’, in which we see The Killer’s pre-assassination routine, narrated by The Killer himself and soundtracked to his The Smiths playlist.  His life is a meticulously planned one, his repeated mantra is: “Stick to your plan. Anticipate, don't improvise. Trust no one. Never yield an advantage. Fight only the battle you're paid to fight”.  He’s a man who tries to be in control of everything, and whose cynicism and lack of empathy make him ideally suited to his line of work.

“…Michael Fassbender’s dry, sardonic narration is arguably the key to the film’s success…”

But when events spiral out of control, The Killer finds that he has to break some of his own rules in order to achieve what he wants to achieve – and again, the decision to have The Killer narrate the movie is arguably the key to the film’s success.  By hearing his inner monologue, we get an insight into The Killer’s hypocrisies and contradictions that he probably even hides from himself, all delivered with a dry, sardonic sense of humour by  Michael Fassbender.

Director David Fincher has assembled a great supporting cast – including the likes of Tilda Swinton and Charles Parnell (building on his excellent supporting performance in last year’s Top Gun: Maverick) – but this is unquestionably Michael Fassbender’s movie.  But Fincher also cleverly varies the tone of the movie from ‘Chapter’ to ‘Chapter’, so that while one may be built around a dialogue-driven psychological confrontation, another may have a bone-crunching and brutal physical clash.  In this respect, it may be fair to warn you that the film can ‘zig’ when you expect it to ‘zag’, and some viewers could potentially find the film’s conclusion a little underwhelming (although I thought it worked perfectly, even if not in the way I would have expected).

“…the film’s varied tone is what made it stand out…”

The Killer delivers a little bit of everything – visceral action sequences, a streak of dark, deadpan humour, elements of a procedural thriller, and a memorable two-hander – and while some may be disappointed that the film doesn’t choose one tone and stick with it, I found the film’s variety was what made it stand out from the many other job-goes-wrong-so-assassin-has-to-go-on-the-run thrillers out there.