The Killer

Michael Fassbender moves, walks and uses his voice in an interesting way. And that's all. His soliloquys are as empty as his character’s craft, and we’ve already seen the naturalistic depiction of brutal physical conflict between two cold-blooded professionals elsewhere long ago in more intense performances. The simplicity of the story wouldn’t bother me at all if it were dressed up with imaginative moments, an original psychological profile of the main character and some playing around with the formalistic aspect. However, The Killer offers none of that. The form is pure and precise, but not bold. The encounter with the perfectly cast Tilda Swinton at the table arouses the viewer’s curiosity and interest almost like the face-to-face encounter between Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in Heat, but it remains the only scene that I remember from the movie. And that’s just not enough for a David Fincher flick. I unequivocally prefer The American with George Clooney, a similarly minimalistic and creatively distinctive, yet more emotionally engaging profile of an unknown killer. (11/29/2023)

I was expecting a bombastic thriller from The Killer about a hitman who in his revenge killing spree mode was going to massacre everyone and everything in his way. The thing is that David Fincher is involved and The Killer is a far more "boring" drama with more or less no action, a very low body-count, no shootouts, no emotion and no story. In fact, the film relies purely on Michael Fassbender's face and Fincher's name in the director's chair, but that's not enough for me here. Fassbender has nothing to work with, the film is slow and drawn out, we get nothing of the potential assassin's repertoire, and in fact I search in vain for any element that would save the film and make me remember it even months later. I wasn't bored and the film is perfectly fine to digest, but it's just too "ordinary" and unimaginative, with no distinctive signature. (11/13/2023)

Since David Fincher started collaborating with Netflix, it seems like he's been making whatever he wants, and it's clear that this isn't working out. With The Killer, it feels like he was determined to make a movie about a murderer, a subject he enjoys exploring. However, the result is that Michael Fassbender spends more time narrating than actually acting. Plus, nothing really happens. The film lacks any real emotion. Sure, it's technically proficient — coldly proficient, in fact —but that's about it. (11/13/2023)

A reflective Fincher. Technically still on top of his game, directorially still as methodical and minimalist with attention to every detail. That the screenwriter chose a simpler plot without unnecessary twists or shocking points doesn't matter much. It doesn't have to be in every one of his films. In fact, Fassbender's assassin is such an interesting and well-portrayed character that it is he who is the center of the film, and around him revolves a kind of plot with changing locations and meeting interesting people. Worth mentioning is the fantastic action in Florida, which I wouldn't have expected from Fincher. A meditative, simmering crime drama where everything works very well, just not brilliantly. (11/23/2023)

A weaker moment for David Fincher. The trailer touted an attractive thriller about a hitman, which seemed to be his strongest point, but the result is not very satisfying. The first half hour is excellent, as we watch Michael Fassbender in an apartment preparing to shoot someone with a sniper rifle. I liked the attention to detail, his preparation and the excellent monologues, which consisted of various statistics and philosophising, I that enjoyed a lot (too bad the whole film wasn't in this style), but then it takes a bit of a turn and starts to fall rather flat. The second half in particular is already quite contrived. I was kind of hoping that Fincher would focus on the hitman style, that we'd be watching a professional assassin going from target to target and various forms of defusing with high attention to detail, but this another personal revenge that doesn't stand out from the competition in anything interesting, and Fincher's signature isn't very recognizable. Fassbender's acting is good, likewise of course with the craftsmanship, but plot-wise it doesn't have any balls, there's not much action either, no satisfying twist (at least the fight in the apartment had balls, it was pleasantly gritty, with great cinematography and interestingly shot, it was very palpable, it was the highlight of the film for me), the ending is completely devoid of zest. Shame, the potential here was definitely higher. 6/10. (11/16/2023)