THE KILLER
Cert 15
On Netflix now
Ever since I saw David Fincher’s Zodiac, I haven’t been able to hear Donovan’s Hurdy Gurdy Man without seeing a courting couple being murdered in their car.
Now, the Seven director does for early 80s indie music what he did so effectively for late 60s psychedelia. I doubt I’ll ever hear The Smiths’ How Soon Is Now? without imagining Michael Fassbender shooting a prostitute through the chest with a sniper rifle.
Fassbender’s nameless hitman is a stonecold Smiths nut who uses a mixtape of their downbeat hits to slow his heartbeat as his finger twitches on the trigger.
It’s surprising how well Morrissey’s tortured warblings and Marr’s wailing guitars fit Fincher’s meticulously staged killings.
The assassin is also rather fond of the sound of his own voice. In an ingenious opening, he’s sitting in a Paris office building, patiently waiting for his victim to appear in the window of the five-star hotel across the street.
As he kills time, he outlines his philosophy in a hard-boiled interior monologue. His two favourite maxims are “Anticipate, don’t improvise” and “Forbid empathy”.
Although the film isn’t brimming with emotion, you may find yourself rooting for this unusual hero.
But, when he shoots his mark’s female companion by mistake, the killer becomes the target as his client seeks to erase all links to the failed assassination.
The hitman’s plan is to get there first. A globe-trotting mission takes him to the Dominican Republic, Florida and New Orleans to track down fixers, rival hitmen and the client.
An icy encounter with Tilda Swinton and a bruising altercation with Sala Baker’s thug are thrillingly staged. The latter takes place as The Antiques Roadshow plays on a TV set, forever linking brutal violence to Fiona Bruce.