David Fincher makes films, ones about suspense, men and how they deal with that suspense. The Killer is no different, we watch classic man Michael Fassbender traverse through the many strifes of a contract hitman and the journey that revenge takes someone on. Is this the most emotionally in depth film of all time, delving into the ideas of revenge and morals of a killer for hire? No, of course not. Instead, we watch a film about how terrifyingly easy it is for someone to creatively infiltrate your life and then ultimately, kill you. Does that make it a bad film? Also no.
The Killer is a many named character who we meet in Paris, as he hides out in a WeWork construction site, with a perfect view of a decadent hotel room just across the rue. We get introduced to a few consistencies of the film in these moments, The Killer’s voiceover which runs for most of the film, and the stylised approach to the technical aspects of the film, which persist for the majority of its runtime.
After patiently waiting for his target, The Killer is positively jumping for joy (he’s like super chill about it, but you can tell he’s screaming in elation on the inside) when he finally turns up. He preps his weapon, takes aim and then something happens to cause him to not get the job done. This leads to a push back from the client, and a spring into a plot of revenge, monologues and The Smiths.
Little light on the plot because even though the trailer is too long, it gives away very little of the actual storyline. So, I’m left to my own devices to skirt around spoilers and carefully lay down my thoughts.
I think one of the standout details in this film is the actual killings themselves. They feel very singular in the chapters which the film is split into. The Killer repeats a couple of sayings throughout, one being not to deviate from the plan. I think the film follows this too, pretty religiously sticking to the area and plot thread it is in for the duration of the film. There is a video game quality to the chapters, new location and new set of obstacles with the same objective, furthering the story as we go.
We travel around quite a bit for the film, with distinct locations for each chapter, meaning you very much understand that we’ve moved on, even if you miss the title card to say that we’re in a new area.
The film feels sure of itself in that way, knowing the places to go and how the moods change from place to place. We have a constant in The Killer, so the film allows itself to play around with different characters and ways to tell the story. In one section, we have a stellar fight between The Killer and another character, and in another we have a pretty in depth and wordy conversation with Tilda Swinton.
Tilda may not have been in the whole film, but she definitely makes an impact on viewing. She has a really good conversation with The Killer, having no issue with his lack of conversational rebuttal.
Michael Fassbender does most of his audible performances in a booth, having very few lines of dialogue in the film. He does a lot of this film silently, his emotions\ being conveyed through his manly actions, but mostly his voiceover.
We also have a host of characters which The Killer meets along the way, All bringing their own flair to their section, memorable in their own way. Notably, Kerry O'Malley who plays Dolores has some of the only emotional moments in the film, where you latch on to her as a character, so good for you Kerry.
I spoke about the film showing how easy it is for someone to employ the methods that The KIller does, Fincher shows this through the initially confusing amount of brands that are included in the film. It feels egregious with its product placement at first, but as you watch The Killer implement these everyday, recognisable brands into his gruesome kills, we slowly start to understand the mundane danger of one of these people, often having the perception that they have high level gadgets and methods. My only frame of reference is, of course, Totally Spies and their laser lipstick.
The technical side is really impressive in this film, with some incredibly slick camera work going on, moving and flowing and bobbing and weaving and jumping along with The Killer, keeping up with a flow that keeps the pace without overwhelming. This is balanced really well with the editing, which builds tension so well, cutting in for closeups for moments of stress and lowering the volume, drawing out and speeding up cuts at perfect intervals.
The sound design follows, with some really intricate placements in the surround sound, especially when it came to diegetic music. The Killer will often listen to music on his headphones, we experience a tinny and muffled version of these songs while in a third person or distanced perspective, with the music mapped to the location its coming from. We then get full versions of these sounds or songs when in the space with The Killer or looking through his perspective.
My only issue with this film is the lack of depth in the story, it doesn’t really tackle the emotional weight of why anything is happening while we go along, it just happens and we’re expected to understand why. For the most part, on paper, you get what’s going on and why The Killer may be reacting the way he is, but there is not always enough to grip onto emotionally in order for the killings to have much impact. They have a lot of style impact, as they’re clearly well thought through sections in the choreography and technical aspects. The film does enough in these areas to warrant it keeping up the tension and breezing its two hour runtime.
So while I won’t be telling this film’s plot to my therapist as the cause of emotional trauma, I may be looking at the everyday person buying everyday items in an everyday shop, a little differently.
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