Director David Fincher’s thriller, “The Killer,” is too cool for school. It is trying so hard to be as detached and as efficient as its protagonist that viewers might develop disdain for this film, adapted from Alexis “Matz” Nolent’s graphic novel, which was illustrated by Luc Jacamon.
The title character (Michael Fassbender) moves through this sleek film with implacable precision. He speaks more in voiceover than to other people, waxing philosophically about “luck, karma and justice” (and believing in none of them). He also spouts new age-y aphorisms like, “The only life path is the one behind you.” He listens to The Smiths a lot; there are nearly a dozen of the “complaint rock” band’s songs providing sonic wallpaper throughout the film. And, in a running joke, he uses aliases that are names of mostly 1970s television characters —Archibald Bunker, Lou Grant and Lionel Jefferson, among them.
