The Killer

The Killer was an odd viewing experience for me. 

On one hand, you have director David Fincher telling a story about a professional assassin, played by Michael Fassbender. That alone is motivation to see the film and Fincher - much like Scorsese from recent weeks - is a director that puts my butt in a chair (less for stuff like Mank, more for stuff like Zodiac). 

On the other hand...I couldn't reconcile with how detached I was from our central character, or really caring about this world at all. 

I consistently felt like The Killer was holding me at arms length, never wanting me to get attached to its protagonist (who is generally unlikeable) or any of the motivations and world building it contains. The plot has us believe that this professional assassin botches an assassination attempt, which in turn results in his wife being beaten to within an inch of her life. From there, he goes on a hunting spree to extract revenge. My first issue with that is that we're given no indication this would be a character who cares about another individual at all, but yet suddenly he's traumatized over a woman we've not even heard about in the script until she's in the hospital? It makes for some whiplash motivations that I never fully bought in to and there are several choices throughout - some of which feel particularly cruel - that kept me from truly understanding this character.  

Secondly, The Killer is - no other way to put it - dull. A bit boring. Much like Killers of the Flower Moon's gargantuan runtime felt even longer than it was, The Killer is a sub 2-hour movie that feels easily like 2.5. Part of that is the premise itself, that being a professional assassin isn't glamorous, and if anything, mundane. I get it. But in practice in a movie, it wasn't translating for me. I wasn't expecting John Wick levels of action by any means, but there are large swaths of the film - especially the first 20 minutes - where the cracks of the screenplay were showing. 

It's not all "boring" however as The Killer somewhat saves itself on raw talent. Fincher's direction, eye for shots, and editing continue to be top notch. Fassbender's performance is expectedly strong. And make no mistake, there are some very exciting sequences. A household brawl with a massive roid-man is easily one of the best fights of the year and uses some ingenious camera techniques that I'd never seen before. Similarly, a conversation with a late-introduced Tilda Swinton is highly captivating as potentially the only character I cared about in the movie. And while it's woefully underused, there's a Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross original score that hits high marks when it is playing. 

Having sat with The Killer for a couple days before writing this review, I was surprised with how disappointed I was with it and how much I didn't enjoy it. The highlights are quite high thankfully and Fassbender + Fincher is a combo with a lot of talent right out of the gate, but the screenplay, character motivations, and characters themselves were a big miss wrapped up in a film that bores more than it entertains. 

Rapid Rath's Review Score | 6.5/10