David Fincher directs Michael Fassbender, Tilda Swinton and Kerry O’Malley in this hitman thriller where a professional killer sets his world right after a job goes wrong.

Consummately made, apart from some purposefully frazzled hand held work, but also a tad disappointing. If Fincher was making a film a year this would be a perfectly adequate fallow year, downtime project. But considering what a patient predator he is – meticulous, exacting and expert – The Killer feels quite underwhelming. It is essentially his Bourne or Haywire… but not quite as pleasurable as either. To quote The Strokes… “Is This It?”. Imagine if Kubrick made Running Scared or The Dream Team instead of Full Metal Jacket? Fassbender is sturdy as the cold fish lost in a sea of The Smiths and his own bite sized maxims. Swinton gives her usual David Bowie worthy level of showy cameo acting. Kerry O’Malley stands out in her section as the secretary who knows too much and accepts her fate. She is the only performance that doesn’t aim for a chilled flatline. Action-wise it is slim pickings and the one big fight is dampened by the knowledge that our anti-hero’s slight girlfriend overpowered this seemingly unstoppable nemesis off camera already in the second act. That blink at the end… a sign of humanity infiltrating our protagonist or perhaps he shouldn’t have enjoyed that dram… Still, better than most movies out there… maybe it will grow on me. I love a hitman movie, this has solid procedural work, some smart practicalities. I was just expecting… more.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Haywire (2011)

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