Matthew Turner | On 08, Nov 2023

Director: David Fincher
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Tilda Swinton, Arliss Howard Charles Parnell, Sophie Charlotte, Kerrey O’Malley, Sala Baker, Sophie Charlotte
Certificate: 15

It’s pretty generous of director David Fincher to get back into bed with Netflix, considering they cancelled his acclaimed TV show Mindhunter after two seasons, but here we are. Produced by the aforementioned streaming service and adapted from a French graphic novel, Fincher’s latest film is a gripping, if somewhat formulaic, hit man thriller, with a decidedly unexpected soundtrack of Smiths songs.

Set in the present day, the film stars Michael Fassbender as an unnamed hit man who also serves as the narrator of his own story. We’re introduced to him as he sets up in a Paris rented work space and awaits the arrival of his intended victim, in a fancy-looking building across the way. Days go past and the hit man spends that time telling us the tricks of the trade and the various mantras he lives by, including “always stick to the plan” and “anticipate, don’t improvise”.

Given that the hit man has spent a good 20 minutes or so talking up his own genius, it comes as something of a surprise when the hit goes spectacularly wrong. Unfortunately, there are consequences for this sort of thing, meaning that the hit man himself has now become a target, so when his girlfriend (Sophie Charlotte) in the Dominican Republic is attacked, the killer sets about methodically taking out everyone involved in the hit, from his fixer boss (Charles Parnell) in New Orleans, and the Florida-based heavy (Sala Baker) who hospitalised his girlfriend to the client (Arliss Howard) who ordered the hit in the first place, and paid extra for the if-it-all-goes-wrong-eliminate-the-assassin package.

Plot-wise, there are no real surprises here – it’s a straightforward revenge thriller, with Fassbender’s killer slowly climbing the ladder towards his final target. Consequently, the true pleasures of the film lie in the wealth of detail that Fincher accumulates throughout, everything from the killer’s chosen disguise of a German tourist (because nobody wants to talk to them) to his perpetual playlist of Smiths songs that make up the film’s soundtrack to his habit of ordering useful gadgets from Amazon Prime to get him out of a tight spot. (For a Netflix film, there’s a lot of product placement for Amazon.)

Throughout the film, there’s a degree of tension in each of the killer’s encounters, because there are various innocent parties involved – such as his boss’ secretary, Dolores (Kerry O’Malley, superb) – and we wonder if the assassin will register any degree of compassion and let one of them go. The fact that he has a girlfriend in the first place suggests he’s capable of emotional connection, but we see barely see them together, so we end up scrutinising his every act for glimpses of humanity.

Action-wise, Fincher orchestrates a couple of terrific sequences, the standout of which is a brutal punch-up between Fassbender and the hulking figure of Sala Baker. It’s a close-quarters scene that owes a palpable debt to the Bourne franchise, and Fincher (along with some superlative sound design) makes you feel every wallop.

Fassbender is perfectly cast in the lead role – cold, calculated and seemingly unruffled even when the odds are stacked against him. There’s also a delightful, late-occurring turn from Tilda Swinton as one of the people on the killer’s hit-list, who delivers what feels like the lion’s share of the film’s dialogue in just a few minutes.

That’s not to say the film is entirely without flaws. For one thing, the film never quite shakes its generic trappings and feels overly familiar throughout. Also, there are certain little oversights that feel frustrating – for example, you’re expecting a payoff to the fact that all the killer’s aliases (on fake passports, driver’s licences and so on) are classic sitcom characters (Archie Bunker, Sam Malone, etc), but nobody says a word.

Ultimately, this is an engaging and enjoyable hit man movie that’s part procedural, part revenge thriller and part black comedy. It does feel a little bit like Fincher on autopilot, but it gets the job done nonetheless.

 

This review was originally published during the 2023 Venice Film Festival.

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