"Stick to the plan. Do only the job you're paid to do. Anticipate and don't improvise. Don't trust anyone. Don't empathize. Empathy shows weakness and weakness is vulnerability." These are the words that Michael Fassbender repeats almost like a mantra in an internal monologue in his role as a lethal assassin in The killer, David Fincher's long-awaited return to the big screen with which he aspires to the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
If the opening credits roll at breakneck speed, as if it were the umpteenth series of Fast
And it is that, after so much previous preparation, the order that the executor must fulfill does not go as expected, and his life is in danger. Thus, he launches into a bloody adventure of survival and revenge that will take him to the Dominican Republic, New Orleans, Florida and New York, stages that Fincher divides into several chapters with a revealing final epilogue.
Three years after Mank, the director of Seven or The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has turned to the graphic novel of the same name by the French Matz and Luc Jacamon to tell the moral crisis that an unscrupulous murderer goes through. A guy for whom listening to music while aiming at the target is a must. Specifically, Fincher has opted for The Smiths and songs like Big mouth strikes again and How soon is now?. "I loved the idea of it being a tool to calm his anxiety. Like a meditation tape. I thought it was fun."
Fassbender's choice was clear from the beginning. "We had to accommodate his schedule and we are very happy to have him. Without him we certainly would not have made this film." Also noteworthy is the ability to control the interpreter of Shame, another of the stars absent from La Mostra during this edition. "He gives you everything you need as a director. His face is the perfect combination of Charlton Heston and Laurence Olivier." He adds: "Likeability was the last thing on my mind for this character. It didn't need to be scary. You know, the banality of evil. My hope is that somebody sees this movie and gets really nervous about the person they're behind in line at Home Depot," he said, referring to a popular DIY store.
On the hot topic of the Hollywood actors' and scriptwriters' strike, he says he is "sad" and that he understands both parties: "I think the only thing we can do is encourage them to talk." The killer will be released in Spanish theaters on the 27th of October and from November 10 it will be available on the Netflix platform, with which Fincher already collaborated on Mank, the biopic about Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz.
