

Bruno loved his job as a middle manager at a paper company, but optimistically views being laid off as an opportunity. After two years of searching for a comparable position, optimism turns to desperation. His wife works two jobs, and their marriage slowly deteriorates as their hold on the middle class slips away. Bruno concocts a grimly audacious plan to identify and kill his fellow job applicants so that he is the only qualified person left.
Acting
José Garcia's deadpan desperation is uncomfortably perfect.
Direction
Costa-Gavras treats murder like mundane paperwork.
Writing
The novel's savage wit survives translation intact.

Director
Costa-Gavras
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on Donald Westlake's 1997 novel 'The Ax,' written during his own career anxieties after being dropped by his publisher.
The Luger pistol Bruno uses is a deliberate choice—an obsolete weapon for obsolete men in a ruthless modern economy.