If you’re hoping for a film on par with Zodiac, Seven, or Gone Girl when heading out to see David Fincher’s latest The Killer, I hate to break it to you but you’re going to end up disappointed. Which, if the conversations I heard while leaving the screening of the film I attended are an indication, was what happened to a number of my fellow moviegoers last night. And precisely how I felt as well. Now, the failures of the film aren’t necessarily fully attributable to Fincher – the script, by Andrew Kevin Walker, is far and away the largest issue with the film – but with a very flat central performance from Michael Fassbender as The Killer, along with the bulk of the cast providing performances that are either too heightened or too muted to match the story being told, and a story of revenge that feels rooted in nothing tangible, The Killer is missing too much to make it worth a look.
The story is adapted from a graphic novel, so it’s entirely possible that these issues stem from the source material. But when it comes to revenge tales – especially revenge tales that are broken up on screen into chapters tied to specific characters the protagonist must deal with in his journey – it’s nearly impossible not to compare the film to Kill Bill, Quentin Tarantino’s revenge tale that follows the same structure. In all categories, Kill Bill is the far superior film. And that already sets The Killer up behind the eight-ball. But when you start trying to dive into the story within the film, things just continue getting more and more muddy. How did The Killer get into this particular line of business, wherein he’s apparently one of the best assassins in the world? Well, we get a bit of backstory, but it begs more questions. How did the alleged best in the world miss his kill this time around? Well, we could guess at the reason, but it doesn’t really make a ton of sense for someone who always gets his mark (I suppose we could be dealing with an unreliable narrator, but the rest of the film plays out in such a manner as to take this possibility off the table fairly quickly).
And, perhaps, the most important question of them all, why should we care enough about The Killer to want to follow him on his journey of revenge? Well, that one the film never sets up enough for us. No great tragedy is enacted against The Killer. The incident that sparks the revenge is one that The Killer should have anticipated, one that he doesn’t anticipate, and thus his acts of revenge of more an act of him trying to cleanse his own conscience than try to right a wrong done against him.* Which is the most interesting element of the story, but one that Walker’s script and Fassbender’s performance never dive into. This isn’t a case where someone took out someone The Killer loved out of spite or malice (although there are indications that one of those enacting this hit went too far beyond the normal bounds of the situation). Rather, The Killer made a major error and knew that this might happen as a result yet took no steps to insulate those around him from the blow back. Hubris? Probably. But also the same lack of focus that led to his initial error as well. But, again, this sort of mental lapse is something the film could have played deeply with, could have built an intricate tower of pros and cons around The Killer’s actions. But nope. That’s not what we get. That’s not our story. That isn’t how this one goes. Instead, it’s surface level revenge. Fights. Blood. And no depth.
*The basics of the plot, which I don’t want to dive into too deeply lest I spoil something, are fairly typical for such a story as this: After failing at his mission, an attack is carried out against someone The Killer (apparently) loves (because The Killer wasn’t present when the attack, meant for him, occurred), causing The Killer to embark on a quest for revenge against all those responsible for that attack.
Walking out of the film, I was disappointed. Now, hours later, I’m even more disappointed. There’s an interesting morality tale here. An interesting character study. Something more than the sum of the parts we’re shown in this film. And Fincher is certainly the type of director, with such a clear visual style, that could have provided it to us. Alas, instead, we only get a perfunctory surface story with mostly serviceable performances (Kerry O’Malley is the standout, as Delores, a secretary swept up into danger she never imagined would come for her) and visuals that lack the normal Fincher touch.
The Killer opens in the United States on October 27 and will be released on Netflix on November 10. This film was screened at the 59th annual Chicago International Film Festival on October 17, 2023.
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