Bryan Fuller’s Dust Bunny

The really good movie hitmen always turn out to be just as talented volunteering as bodyguards. Like Leon the Professional or the “Pawnbroker” in The Man from Nowhere, young Aurora’s “Intriguing Neighbor” protects her from underworld killers. He can handle the mean streets and hardboiled thugs, but Aurora’s guardian angel might also have to face a monster who would be more at home in Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. Of course, he does not believe in giant furry monsters, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t real in Bryan Fuller’s Dust Bunny, which opens tomorrow in theaters.

Aurora is convinced there is a monster under her bed that will “get” her if she steps foot on her floor. Her latest foster parents give her condescending assurances (less so her foster father), but then they suddenly disappear. Having grown fascinated with her neighbor across the hall, Aurora has (more-or-less rightly) deduced he is some sort of hitman, so she hires him to kill the monster under her bed.

Reasonably, her mystery neighbor assumes Aurora has created her monster story as a psychological coping device. He ruefully admits the evidence does not look good for her fosters, but he believes they were mistakenly murdered by gangsters with a score to settle with him. His enemies and competitors are indeed poking around their building, but there might just be something to what Aurora claims.

Sometimes, Fuller’s style is a little too affected, but in general, Dust Bunny is a refreshingly original urban fantasy. The colorful visuals and richly-detailed design work are often quite arresting. There is also a strain of wry, dry humor that serves as an antidote to sentimentalism.

Of course, the casting of Mads Mikkelsen (the star of Fuller’s Hannibal) as the neighbor and Sigourney Weaver as his handler, Laverne, perfectly suits that purpose. Both maintain sly, cynical attitudes that keep the film just barely grounded. Likewise, Sophie Sloan nicely projects sensitivity and vulnerability, without indulging in cloying mawkishness.

Frankly, Fuller’s risk-taking approach for his feature directorial debut is pretty impressive. It is sort of like a Hitman: Agent 47 kind of movie, reconceived as a fairy tale by Dominique Abel & Fiona Gordon. The fact that it works as well as it does is really something. Enthusiastically recommended for urban fantasy fans, Dust Bunny opens tomorrow (12/12) in theaters, including the AMC Empire in New York.