David Fincher’s new movie “The Killer”, which was released in South Korean theaters in this week before being released on Netflix in a few weeks later, is a thriller as cold, ruthless, and efficient as you can expect from him. Mainly driven by the strong presence of its lead actor, the movie smoothly and precisely moves from one narrative point to another, and you can clearly discern that Fincher has some twisted fun with that while keeping everything as straight as possible on the surface.

The titular character, who uses a number of different aliases throughout the film, is played Michael Fassbender, who has been always good at playing intense and unpleasant characters as shown from his utterly uncompromising performance in Steve McQueen’s “Shame” (2011). His coldly slick appearance is a perfect match for Fincher’s dry and detached approach to the story and characters, and his phlegmatic narration quickly sets the tone as his character meticulously prepares for his latest job step by step.

As your typical professional, Fassbender’s killer character has been very proud and dedicated while also being quite aloof about the heinous nature of his profession. He has killed lots of people, but it goes without saying that everything is strictly business for him from the beginning to the end, and he even justifies his work as regarding himself as a skillful predator around the top of the Darwinian food chain inside the human society.

“Stick to your plan” is his main motto, and we observe how the killer is quite calm and careful even at the very last step of his latest job. He makes sure that everything is prepared well for him without any problem, and now all he will have to do is simply focusing on his deadly tunnel vision for a while and then pulling the trigger once the right moment comes at last.

However, things suddenly go quite wrong at the very last minute, and now the killer has to face the consequence of his disastrous failure, but, again, he does not lose any of his phlegmatically controlled attitude. First, he swiftly gets away from the scene while not drawing much attention, and then he quickly leaves for a little private place of his in the Dominican Republic, where he has resided along with his girlfriend.

Of course, the situation turns out to be much worse than expected. The client behind the killer’s latest job wants to clean up the circumstance as much as possible, and that includes eliminating the killer himself, and the killer eventually decides to do some counterattack for his safety and survival. He tracks down a number of figures associated with his current trouble one by one, and it goes without saying that he will not be that nice to these persons in question.

Some of these figures are played by notable performers such as Charles Parnell, Arliss Howard, and Tilda Swinton, and they surely have some fun with playing against Fassbender’s unforgivingly unflappable position. In case of a supporting character played by Kerry O’Malley, she is quite scared at first, but then she makes a practical deal with the killer even though she will definitely be killed in one way or another, and the killer shows her a little mercy later.

In case of the part involved with a literally brutal figure played by New Zealander actor/stuntman Sala Baker, Fincher goes all the way for intensely remorseless violence, and he demonstrates to us that he can make a pretty good John Wick movie if he wants. Although the physical action during this part is mainly unfolded in a rather dim space, every punch and blow is accompanied with considerable physical impact, and you can see Fassbender and Baker really throwing themselves into action without any hesitation.

Even as the screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker, which is based on the French graphic novel series of the same name by Alexis “Matz” Nolent and Luc Jacaman, arrives at its expected final chapter, the movie firmly holds our attention as before thanks to Fincher and his first-rate crew members. He and his cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, who won an Oscar for Fincher’s previous Netflix film “Mank” (2020), deftly brings a subtle but constant sense of uneasiness to the screen, and the editing by Kirk Baxter, who won two Oscars along with Angus Wall for Fincher’s two previous films “The Social Network” (2010) and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (2011), steadily maintains the narrative momentum. While the electronic score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who also won an Oscar for “The Social Network”, often unnerves us, a number of songs from English rock band The Smiths are effectively utilized during several key moments in the movie, and you may look for these songs after watching the film.

Overall, “The Killer” looks relatively modest compared to Fincher’s more ambitious works such as “The Social Network” and “Mank”, but it is inarguably his another distinctive work to be cherished for the mood, storytelling, and performance. As he previously did in “Panic Room” (2002), he seems to want to do some casual exercise before whatever he will do next, but the result is often skillful enough to earn our admiration, and it is certainly one of better offerings from Netflix during this year. Just like the hero of his film, he does stick to his plan, and the result is pretty rewarding for us.