A View to a Killer

The prospect of a new movie from director David Fincher is no longer alone sufficient to rouse my interest. I disliked his last effort, Mank, enough that now there has to be something more than just his name attached to the movie for me to consider watching.

Fincher's newest film is now streaming on Netflix. The Killer is the story of a nameless assassin whose carefully ordered world is upended when something goes wrong on a job. Soon he's on a globe-trotting vendetta, even as he tells himself that none of what he's doing is personal.

The "something more" that pulled me into this movie was the writer, Andrew Kevin Walker. He's responsible for the script of Seven (or "Se7en"), arguably Fincher's best movie -- though certainly a stand-out in the director's career. These two re-teaming felt like reason enough to be curious. Though Walker was here adapting a French graphic novel rather than writing an original script, it certainly seemed as though these two collaborators could absolutely serve up "moody and violent" with great results.

Of course, I'd like to think I wasn't actually expecting "another Seven" here, as those expectations are too high to saddle a new movie with. But I probably was expecting too much, at least, and I did wind up being a little bit disappointed. The Killer is kinda-sorta an "art house John Wick." It has only a fraction of the wild action of Keanu Reeves' adrenaline-charged franchise, but it is similarly crafted on the thinnest of a narrative skeletons -- it's a framework for set pieces. But in The Killer, those set pieces are often intellectual more than physical. Confrontations are as likely to take the form of a coolly intense conversation as a physical brawl.

In its own way, I think The Killer has the same key flaw as many of the John Wick movies. I've noted of John Wick that while I like parts of each movie well enough, I often find the whole to be a bit monotonous and repetitive in the action. The Killer can be that way in its intellectualism. Walker's script is literally monotonous: there's more voice-over from the main character than actual spoken dialogue. And it's literally repetitive: the main character is always reciting mantras meant to tell the audience how methodical and professional he is. I totally see what you're doing here; that doesn't make it any less repetitive.

Still, like John Wick, there are charms to be had. One of those is the charming star, Michael Fassbender. It's kind of wild how much charisma Fassbender exudes on screen, because this is likely the least charismatic, least emotive, most restrained character he has ever played. Yet even when he's being flat and cold, he's got a "can't take your eyes off him" quality. That might sound at odds with the story here, but on the contrary, it plays right into it all. You feel the dangerous potential beneath the icy surface, and you are transfixed by what the character does even when you might want to look away.

There are interesting supporting performances throughout the movie as well. The way everything unfolds is evidence of the original graphic novel roots; the chapters are literally identified on screen like a new "issue," as the titular killer pursues a new target. But many of these targets are interesting characters of their own, particularly Charles Parnell as a wicked lawyer, and Sala Baker as an imposing adversary literally called The Brute. And then there's Tilda Swinton -- THE actor at #1 on your list if you're looking for a memorable character (no matter the size of the role) in your movie. This isn't the kind of big, "swing for the fences" sort of Swinton performance that you sometimes get, but she is able to go toe to toe with Fassbender and turn the movie's most outwardly sedate scene into its most inwardly fraught and tense scene.

So all told, I think I would give The Killer a modest recommendation, and a B-. You have to already be interested in something about it; it's not the kind of movie that's ever going to "win you over" if it doesn't sound like your thing. But it is a case of many talented creative people showcasing what they can do: even if it's not their personal best, it's still not bad.