The Killer (2023)

 In the abrupt, kind of cheesy/kind of awesome title sequence to David Fincher's The Killer, there's a quick montage of assassination methods - from basic (poison in the coffee) to pretty funny (handling a live snake). Blink and you'll miss a frozen baby in a fridge; This is a pretty glamorous film, because anything directed by Fincher and starring Michael Fassbender is never going to look anything less than fucking amazing - but... yeah, this one's about a guy who's willing to put a baby in the freezer if he gets paid enough.

 The killer (Fassbender) has rules. As he stakes out a Parisian penthouse waiting for his target to show, he tells us all about them, at length, along with the ins and outs of his craft and his philosophy: how waiting for stuff to happen sucks, that nothing makes sense and if he hurries some deaths along, what's the problem? Also, the advantages of killing someone up close over an 'Annie Oakley job'. Turns out the killer has a hankering for a good drowning.

 Note that at no point does he mention bullshit, transporter-style rules about not shooting women or not making babecicles; Instead, he warns against empathy and to 'stick to the plan'.

 Things go tits up during the Paris job, and his target survives. Not without consequence: When The Killer makes it back to his hideout in the Dominican Republic, he finds someone's broken in and tortured his lady friend (Sophie Charlotte). Instead of cutting his losses, he decides to come out of the shadows and make sure no one is ever in a position to do the same again (to him) - neither his handler (Charles Parnell), the contractors sent after him (Tilda Swinton and Sala Baker) nor the person who took the original job (Arliss Howard). As he goes along he's constantly explaining his actions and his philosophy in a stream of narration that at some point starts sounding like maybe he's trying to convince himself.

 The movie is structured into chapters, each one a target, each one with a different setting, feel and texture. Because The Killer loves to show off, all of them take a weirdly, compellingly procedural feel, but they're built around exposition, a sort of philosophical debate, a terrific close-quarters brawl, or puzzle solving. The film takes its time getting anywhere but the direction is so precise, and Fassbender is so good, it never feels like it's wasting yours.

 It's an action thriller with a, honestly, pretty low action quotient and a heavy emphasis on the psychology of the character and the minutiae of The Killer routine. This is a little bit of a problem since the character is basically a cypher, someone who's basically brainwashed himself into being a consummate professional in his chosen field. Good thing that his chosen field is inherently interesting and bound to fuck anyone up, then. What with all those freezer babies* I keep hearing about.

 Fincher could make punchy genre stuff like this in his sleep, and the cinematography (courtesy of Erik Messerschmidt) is very slick. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross contribute a cool synth soundtrack.

 The script by Andrew Kevin Walker (based on French comics by Alexis Nolent and Luc Jacamon) does a good job of switching things up and gets a lot of clever touches in (I liked how events would frequently interrupt The Killer's internal monologue; there's a wry sense of humor running through the film). It also doesn't forget to spike any sympathy that might develop towards the protagonist with the odd horrific killing, adding a splash of discomfort to the proceeds.

 If it ends up feeling a little bit hollow, well, that's OK - couldn't be otherwise, as it's partly a character study on a character who's desperately needs to believe he is hollow. The film around him has so much going for it that it's a moot point anyhow.

 *: Seriously, I'd love to know more about how that frozen baby came about. Is that from the comic? Was it in the script? Did someone pitch it while brainstorming ideas for the title sequence? Does Fincher think about this as his frozen baby movie?