Michael Fassbender as an assassin in The Killer. Photo / Supplied
Michael Fassbender as an assassin in The Killer. Photo / Supplied
The last time David Fincher made a movie for Netflix, it got 10 Oscar nominations. That was the 2020 Hollywood historical drama Mank. On The Killer, which heads to the streamer after a short cinema run, the director of previous awards-bait films like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button andThe Social Network swings back from prestige to pulp. Though he’s done that with the flair that marked his previous body-count films like Se7en, Zodiac and the FBI TV series Mindhunter.
Adapted from a series of French graphic novels, it’s the straightforward story of Michael Fassbender’s well-paid assassin, who traverses the globe à la Jason Bourne.
We know he’s a serious mercenary who doesn’t give two hoots because the gun-for-hire’s droll voice-over reiterates his credo throughout Fincher’s beautifully photographed, amber-tinged travelogue, which takes him from a failed hit in Paris to the Dominican Republic and then Florida. As if to remind himself, the intentionally unmemorable, beige-clothed killer incants, “stick to the plan. Anticipate, don’t improvise” and other precepts from the hitman’s handbook.
Despite his commitment to routine – the yoga; the timed sleep deprivation; the litany of Smiths’ songs in a playlist cutely titled “Work” – when the hunter becomes the hunted, it’s inevitable that this killer will trip and break his own rule.
Fincher’s latest film is a fascinatingly forensic dissection of a dangerous profession, and this time also a gripping action flick.
With a cameo from Tilda Swinton, and the most extraordinary sound design yet from regular collaborators Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, The Killer – well worth seeing on the big screen – is transformed from an ordinary murderer movie into a stylish and riveting thriller.
