Busan 2023 Review: THE KILLER, the Style is the Substance in David Fincher's Clinically Executed Action Thriller

Michael Fassbender and David Fincher come together for a lone assassin thriller that glides off the screen with impeccable style and a simmering, slyly subversive wit that elevates it above the tried and tested conventions of this beloved action genre. 

 

The Killer is adapted from the French graphic novel series of the same name by Matz (aka Alexis Nolent), whose work also inspired the 2012 Sylvester Stallone/Walter Hill collaboration Bullet to the Head. Seven scribe Andrew Kevin Walker pens the script, which unfurls with the same ruthless efficiency and self-control as Fassbender’s unnamed trigger man, a fastidious, coldly disciplined loner, who operates according to the dictates of a ruthlessly upheld code.

 

Onscreen, Fassbender barely utters a word during the film’s runtime, but on the voiceover, the regimented mantra of his process permeates almost every scene. Stick to the plan, trust no one, anticipate don’t improvise…and so it goes, until a split-second disruption to his meticulously executed plan sees his single long-range shell miss its target and suddenly the killer’s world is thrown into chaos. 

 

As beholden as Fincher’s film is to the archetypal pillars of this genre - Le Samouraï, The Day of the Jackal, Léon, Ghost Dog et al - his film delivers an ice-cold shot to the heart as its opening bravura sequence of set-up and anticipation ends in catastrophic failure. All the killer’s preparation and planning, from his immaculately vacuum-packed arsenal to the meditative maintenance of his measured heart rate, is tossed to the wind, and he is forced to flee for his life. 

 

It’s the classic hunter becomes the hunted narrative: he botches the job, forcing his employers to send a pair of equally ruthless executioners after him, but when they find only our protagonist’s girlfriend (Sophie Charlotte), and leave her for fighting for her life, he has no option but to turn tail and come gunning for everyone responsible. 

 

From there, The Killer is propelled forward by a dizzying whirlwind of exotic locations, assumed identities, and violent acts of unflinching retribution. Narratively, there is little that will surprise onscreen. The style is the substance, and Fincher is clearly revelling in the opportunity to play us his reworked renditions of these beloved action standards, accompanied by a pulsating score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and the very best cuts from 80s Manchester rock outfit The Smiths, most memorably 1985’s “How Soon is Now?”. 

 

Fassbender is absolutely perfect as the eponymous killer, who is compelled to engage with his emotions and act impulsively for the very first time. We have seen glimpses of his action prowess in the past, perhaps most notably in Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire, but here, doing the bare minimum, he instills in the viewer the absolute certainty that he can and will overpower and destroy anyone who crosses his path without breaking a sweat. His taut, nimble physique, inconspicuously handsome appearance, measured, monotonous drawl and blandly stylish wardrobe of functional athleisurewear all come together in a perfect confluence of unassuming intimidation and efficiency. 

 

Elsewhere there are memorable appearances from Charles Parnell, Sala Baker, Arliss Howard, and Tilda Swinton as the various stepping stones on Fassbender’s warpath of vengeance, but few have more than a single scene in which to make an impression, before inevitably succumbing to The Killer’s curse. 

 

Doubtless, there will be critics who are all too eager to dismiss The Killer as shallow, generic, and derivative for merely revelling in these tropes and clichés rather than attempting to reinvent them, and I must concede that I would have loved to have seen Fincher and Walker lean harder into its moments of cynical subversion. However, there are few pleasures to be found more rewarding than witnessing a true master of the form showboating at this level, with such assured ease and expertise.  The Killer may be nothing new, but that doesn’t stop it from knocking us dead.