The Killer
Existentialist crime thriller by David Fincher (Fight Club, The Social Network) with Michael Fassbender as a hitman who takes on his clients.
‘Execution is everything’. So reads the clever tagline of this revenge thriller by David Fincher, about the lethal work of a coldly methodical assassin. We don’t get to know his name, but in an inner monologue we are privy to his thoughts: on the amoral nature of the universe, the music of The Smiths, the dress code of German tourists and on how, in his line of business, boredom is the largest challenge. When the hitman makes a big mistake during an assignment in Paris, he himself suddenly becomes the target of his clients.
THE KILLER is loosely based on the graphic novels by Alexis Nolent and Luc Jacamon, which were adapted into a screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker, who was also responsible for the screenplay of David Fincher’s SE7EN. The result is a tightly executed thriller – in which cinephiles will recognize several references to Jean-Pierre Melville’s classic LE SAMOURAÏ with Alain Delon – that shows in minute detail the modus operandi of an assassin. (mv)