The Killer (2023)
Directed by David Fincher
Written by Andrew Kevin Walker
Starring Michael Fassbender, Tilda Swinton
Release Date November 10th, 2023
Published?
Is David Fincher's The Killer a comedy? I'm genuinely asking this question because I think Fincher is messing with us. The Killer is oddly sly, talky, and carries an almost entirely ironic needle drop soundtrack of songs by The Smiths, that most melancholy, death-obsessed, of pop groups. A killer who relaxes by listening to The Smiths is an irresistible comic idea. I asked my music obsessed sister about making a movie about a contract killer with a soundtrack full of Smiths songs and she responded, not knowing I was talking about the new David Fincher movie, 'That's a bit too spirited and haunted of an idea. The Smiths are 'a bit too acutely perfect for it.'
Putting aside for a moment that The Smiths lead singer, Morrissey, is now a toxic waste dump of a human being, the soundtrack does feel like a bit of a joke. That's especially true when you combine the soundtrack with Michael Fassbender's insanely relaxed performance that slowly starts to unravel as his nameless killer is forced to go on the run and hunt down killers who are now hunting him after he botches a job in Paris in the opening 'chapter' of the movie. The needle drops are mostly early in The Killer but they have a perversely comic edge to them.
As Fassbender delivers an inner monologue to us in the audience about his work as a killer for hire, Fincher punctuates the scene by raising and dropping the volume on the Smiths' song "How Soon is Now." Pointedly and purposefully, after Fassbender's killer says "I serve no God or country, I fly no flag." The volume rises on How Soon is Now as Morrissey sings "I go about things the wrong way." It's as if the music Fincher chose for this scene is intended as a critique of his main character. This motif repeats moments later when Fassbender intones his personal thesis statement "I...Don't...Give...A...F***" the soundtrack rises again and Morrissey sings, as if in conversation with the movie, "I am human and I need to be loved."
Do I think this is Fincher saying that a hardened, sociopathic murderer just needs to be loved? No, I think, in the world and mind of David Fincher, this is humor. This is Fincher mocking the idea that someone this cold blooded, this seemingly without remorse, could be saved by a good hug and a cuddle. That's what I thought when the scene was playing out anyway. By the end of the movie, Fincher seems to have come around on the idea of the transformative power of love, at least a little, at least as a way of ending the movie.
There are other elements of dark and twisted humor in The Killer. After his failed shooting at the start of the movie, as Fassbender is riding a scooter to get away from the scene of the crime, Fassbender says the line 'WWJWBD, What Would John Wilkes Booth Do?' Is the line funny? Kind of, at the odd angle that David Fincher comes to it, it's kind of funny and Fassbender's relaxed, calm delivery of the line almost feels like he's acknowledging the dark comedy of such a statement. I am only amused by the line as I sit here, while watching it, it rang a bell in my mind that it was an odd statement but I quickly moved on from it.
Click here for my full length review at Geeks.Media.
