Movie 18 - The Killer (2023) , Dir. David Fincher.
The movie stars Michael Fassbender who plays an assassin who is dubbed The Killer. The story follows him after he botches up an assassination. The client who ordered the assassination then attacks his girlfriend leading him on a revenge mission.
The story is interesting because it is not your typical spy/assassin movie like the James Bond films or the Hitman films where each scene something exciting is happening. This movie takes it much slower, It's kind of like a day in the life of an assassin. The movie also feels very similar to The Terminal List (2022) in tone and style.
Throughout entire movie the thought process of The Killer is narrated. It's a unique style that expresses the situation by providing two mediums of expression i.e. the narration and the body language at the same time. The narration happens throughout the movie explaining what he is doing and why he is doing it. The narration also makes it sound like he is very meticulous and the best.
The thing i liked about the movie is that it shows how normal the assassin's life is and how he blends in. The regular routine and the just waiting for days for the target to show up and getting bored. The fact that it was so easy to enter into a places using tech from amazon, basic tools and slight of hand techniques like the rich person's apartment that somehow do not seem ridiculous. It is the fact of how simple it is to acquire tools and blend in to different places that puts an interesting perspective on today's technological world.
I also like how the places he is in keeps changing like from Paris to Dominican Republic to NOLA to Florida to Chicago and eventually Dominican Republic. It keeps the story more fast paced while also leaving enough time for the killer to do his work in these places keeping the story fresh.
Now the stuff that bothers me.
From what i'm reading about David Fincher's films is that most of his characters are a self-parody. Which drew me to the conclusion that if the killer is the best, then he wouldn't have missed the shot. I think the film might just plainly be about an assassin who thinks he is James Bond but let's his ego get the best of him leading him to be a guy who is not good at his job.
From what i'm reading on his films, most his characters are supposed to be for people who want to embody fictional characters but choose to embody only certain aspects that feel good making it a satirical hypocritical statement.
Another issue i had is that throughout the movie when he is killing everyone related to the attack on his girlfriend like the taxi driver that drove the attackers, the employer he works for, the attackers that attacked. But chooses not to kill the the guy who ordered the attack and instead let's him off with a warning. It kind of seems like the director and the writer are getting a kick out screwing with the viewer. I think it might have been some choice to suddenly bring character development to an assassin. It was weird as it was a deviation from the existing plot development.
Another thing which was weird was the scene with Tilda Swinton where she is eating, drinking and giving a monologue because she is trying to connect with the killer. The killer just stays silent for the most of it and ends up killing her at the end. The scene felt pointless and a waste of Tilda Swinton. Also the killer not talking when any of his victim's were talking was just funny, it's like they were scared by him but talking but only because he had a gun and not because he had a threatening personality.
It's still better compared Netflix's other attempts at making a spy/assassin movie like Red Notice (2021) and Heart of stone (2023).
The uneventful job of an assassin that is generally shown to be exciting makes this a unique movie. The story will make you realize after you watch it doesn't make sense, but up until that moment the movie feels intriguing, suspenseful and a thrill to watch which is why i highly recommend it. 7/10
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My next review is going to be Scent of a Woman (1992)
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