"The Killer" -- Movie Review

 

On the final weekend of the 61^st New York Film Festival, I attended a special screening of the new crime adventure, “The Killer”, directed by David Fincher and starring Michael Fassbender in the title role. 

Synopsis

When a paid assassin’s latest assignment goes awry, will he be able to find who tried to have him murdered afterwards?

Story

When you’re a paid assassin (Fassbender), you may get to travel to many exotic locations.  This time, it’s Paris.  But the job may also include a considerable amount of down time, which can tend to be boredom-inducing.  As a result, this one spends time in the abandoned office building across the street from his next target, keeping warm with a small space heater and staying fed with food from a French McDonald’s; in between, he exercises with yoga and tries to get in some sleep.  When the opportunity arises to take down the victim, he fires his rifle – that’s the moment when things take a turn for the worse. 

Unfortunately, it is just at that moment when someone else steps into the line of fire; taking the bullet, they die instead of the one for whom it was intended.  The Killer must then quickly bail out and leave town – but not before informing his boss about what happened.  When he finally returns to his home in the Dominican Republic, he discovers that it was invaded by someone who was out to get him for not completing the job successfully; instead,  as a warning, they attack his partner who lives there with him.  Now, The Killer has his new mission:  to find and eliminate whoever it was that tried to take him out. 

With his duty clear, The Killer travels all across the United States searching for the original source who had him hired in the first place, assuming that it’s the same person who tried to have him killed for not properly finishing the job.  Working backward starting from the lawyer who initially hired him for the job, he flies from city to city before finally confronting the wealthy hedge fund manager who apparently ordered the hit on the Frenchman in the first place.  But upon confronting his new target, will he still be able to do the job he set out to do or must he bail out here as well?

Review

From the opening, it is apparent that Fincher has shot a very slick movie in “The Killer” – perhaps appropriately so, given the fact that it is based on a graphic novel.  Fassbender is the perfect choice as the role of the assassin, playing it cool and detached, until the character does not have the luxury to do so.  This is a very entertaining action-adventure film, but only enjoyable on the most superficial of levels as there’s not much substantial to either the character or the plot.  It seems that the ultimate message of the motion picture is supposed to be that we are more like The Killer than we care to admit, but that’s a bit of a leap. 

The resolution to “The Killer” is a little disappointing and unsatisfying, especially after all of the action that precedes the ending scene.  It’s also a bit misleading in the sense that it feels as though the audience is being set up for some kind of great battle at the end which never fully materializes.  “The Killer” appears to want to aspire to being a psychological or intellectual endeavor with a bit of action thrown in, but the action is more well developed than any psychological or intellectual aspects, which are somewhat vacuous at best.  Go into “The Killer” with low expectations and they will be met; it is nothing more than a popcorn movie, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

What makes “The Killer” worth your time is both the performance by Fassbender and the look and sound that Fincher has created for this film.  Also, some of the scenes of Paris and the Caribbean are quite nice.  There is some humor thrown in amidst the violence, such as the fake names The Killer uses when travelling.  What gets to wear thin, however, is that much of the movie is the character of The Killer providing voiceover narration, sharing with us not only his inner thoughts but also his philosophy about his career choice.  Tilda Swinton appears briefly in a small role, but the one scene she has with Fassbender is quite good.