In several respects, The Killer is probably what one would expect from any David Fincher directed film that centers upon a hired gun. It is a very elaborate depiction of the type of things that a hitman has to go through as the best laid plans go to pieces. In recounting this tale of a deadly perfectionist who tries to remain focused by telling himself “Forbid Empathy,” Fincher also plays up to his reputation of being a very meticulous, and some would say, obsessive, filmmaker. Though based on a graphic novel by Alexis ‘Matz’ Nolent, The Killer is arguably Fincher’s most personal work up to now.
Certainly, it doesn’t hurt to have a leading man who has already established himself as good at playing heartless monsters and that there are traces of David from “Prometheus” that Michael Fassbender brings to the Edmund character with no real name in Fincher’s film. “The Killer” begins with the protagonist having slipped into a furry costume and a wig, talking over a voiceover for an ungainly long length of time while stalking an unknown target in Paris. He drones on about the slogans of the cafe below, hurries for lunch at McDonald’s, and puts The Smiths on repeat (roughly a dozen rare songs by the iconic band can be termed as enriching the soundtrack and there is subtle humor in this film that remains dead tone). But otherwise, he attempts to go about his business, explaining that he wore the German tourist outfit because the French do not like German tourists. In this intro bathed in violence and rage, together with writer Andrew Kevin Walker (‘Seven’), Fincher sets the main theme that nothing will be hurried. It’s an intentional look at the thoughts and emotions of a hitman, who rationalizes his crimes with the fact that in a single day, many, thousands are born and die–whatever crime he commits is a drop in the ocean.
Once settled in Paris, The Killer finally spots his prey in a penthouse across the street. He fires at them and inadvertently misses for the first time in his life, punching a man who was an innocent bystander in the process. He National Pistol Shooting Champion grants Goes to the Dominican Republic every destination, he finds his partner clinging to life. They both have been dealt with by the clean-up crew. Here The Killer violates most with … his own principles. A total of more than could be counted, there were places marked D.N.R., piles of cash stashed in foreign accounts. He could collar. But the person who seriously promised himself to bow to nobody and to do everything possible for a situation not to turn personal is thinking differently now, seeking retribution against those who invaded his territory and those who hired them to do so. The cast includes Arles’s Howard, Charles Parnell and Tilda Swinton but the onus is on this one individual, a sniper assassin getting hot in the climax.
Every single frame of “The Killer” is imbued with David Fincher’s trademark preoccupation with themes that he has explored in the past: obsession, perfectionism, and power over one’s subject. And this is great, because he credits several of his most excellent collaborators such as Erik Messerschmidt (Gone Girl) as the cinematographer, editor Kirk Baxter (Social Network) and even the music was taken care of by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross. Simply from the quality of the people involved, there is no other way to put it other than Los Angeles, “The Killer” is the only film in recent times that is ‘hums like the killer’. You can sense that every one of them shares the kind of perfectionism that is common in the overly graphic world Ted is known for. And that makes sense because every job done on that production has the ultimate ‘perfectionism’ concept deeply rooted in it. It should not be a film that is presented as rough cut–It works because it is finely tuned just like one of the host of The Killers profession.
That is true; some will ask why we are looking at an immoral creature who is trying to redeem himself, and of course, Fincher and Walker do not avoid this. With the course of the movie, I kept thinking “The Killer” would make attempts to redeem its lead character, but it is impossible to deny that he is a cold-hearted murderer Seth Rogen. At one film festival, I heard a gasp somewhere in the audience when one victim’s neck was broken, almost as if they were expecting a last shot of mercy. That is not something this character carries around with him, and his utterly bleak and mechanical view of taking lives would put some off. This is not a tale of resurrection, but rather a tale of accuracy; it is what happens when perfection fails and a civilization that is possibly the best in the world goes wrong. It is clear that Fincher and Walker cut corners towards the end, especially towards the shortest final epilogue to the book, albeit that complaint will probably lessen on second watch as Armature remembers file character work pretty succinct.
Everything may make “The Killer” sound like a bore, but it is important to mention that it is one of the funniest films directed by Fincher. There is a fantastic running gag about the hitman’s aliases. And there is a parade of recognized companies such as Starbucks, Amazon, We Work and even Wardle, a remark about a society so hyper-commercialized and so chill as to permit an assassin to get lost in it as everyone is too busy with something else. He relies on that in order to perform his duties.
At last, there is the obligatory, unmistakable, as always, red dot–Fincher-ness of “The Killer”. There are those who take pity on it, seeing a director performing his greatest hits, only from the most adept of partners and feeling good about the process. It is not the work of some mediocre artist reproducing himself over and over; it is the work of an artist decontextualizing his motifs and fixations into a new and a more courageous shape. At the end, it poses the question if people like The Killer are effective in isolating the world in order to carry out their tasks. And, conversely, if a virtuoso like David Fincher can do so as well.
For more movies visit like The Killer on 123Movies.