Film Journal 2023: The Killer
Directed by David Fincher
Came into this one with high hopes. Found myself slightly let down. I feel like I understand what it wanted to be- a smart, patient, artsy thriller. I also feel like it thinks it’s better than it actually ends up being on all those fronts. A bit deceptive even to that end.
The film wastes no time setting the stage for the existential crisis that drives it. There is a nihilism to the way it plays out its main characters point of perspective on the world, and in many senses it feels set up to challenge that perspective and take him on a transformative arc over the course of these structured and subsequent killings. That’s really where the issues begin, as I found the main character, played by Micheael Fassbender in a visibly physical performance, is never really fleshed out beyond the fatalism. He ends up very one note and uninteresting.
The other issue I had was the way the film is structured. The film moves us mostly through different points in America, following the killer from city to city as he chases after the implications of a job gone wrong. We get, by design, these different locations, each which become repetitive as we find him in similar situations saying similar things and straddling that similar line between staying consumed with his point of perspective or being challenged to reconsider. The film had a chance to use a particular event to play out some complicated and nuanced motivations, but instead it seems to be more interesting in going for style. And even there, it felt a bit like it only really had one trick up its sleeve.
The idea is strong enough though to at least keep it afloat. There is also one really cool fight scene that employs an old school approach about a third of the way through the film. And the philosophical interests were enough to at least hint at what this could have been had it taken that seriously and actually lived up to its ambitions. Instead, I found the majority of this to be treading water.
The Stories of my Life 