Dust Bunny

“Dust Bunny” either goes too hard or not hard enough, but it’s a fairly assured (albeit niche) feature directorial debut for cult TV figure Bryan Fuller.

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If the idea of having Luc Besson’s “The Professional” filtered through the imaginations of filmmakers like Tim Burton, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Guillermo del Toro appeals to you then “Dust Bunny” (in select theaters beginning Friday, Dec. 12), the feature directorial debut of famed TV writer/producer Bryan Fuller (“Wonderfalls,” “Pushing Daisies,” “Hannibal”), will likely stoke your interest.

Eight-year-old Aurora (Sophie Sloan) wants to solicit the services of the hitman across the hall Resident 5B (Mads Mikkelsen, reuniting with Fuller for the first time since playing his titular cannibal doctor) to kill the very real monster under her bed after it ate her foster parents.

He figures her folks’ offing might’ve been his fault as hitters might’ve been attempting to take him out, so he reluctantly accepts the assignment despite objections from his handler Laverne (Sigourney Weaver, sporting handgun high heels). The duo will have to dodge a social worker with a secret (Sheila Atim, “The Woman King”) as well as a rival hatchet man (David Dastmalchian) with no compunctions about killing kids.

“Dust Bunny” is costume and production designed (by Olivier Bériot and Catherine Leterrier and Jeremy Reed, respectively) to all holy hell and it’s an impressive-looking piece of work. In addition to the appearance of the picture, I also really responded to the performances of Sloan and Mikkelsen and the chemistry these actors shared … even if jokes about Resident 5B mispronouncing Aurora’s name eventually grew stale.

Fuller’s story is fairly thin and I often found myself sort of bored despite enjoying the artistry on screen. I don’t understand why the movie received an R rating as it’s fairly tame and definitely preferred Mikkelsen’s previous foray into assassindom – Jonas Åkerlund’s critically-reviled 2019 offering “Polar.”

“Dust Bunny” either goes too hard or not hard enough, but it’s a fairly assured (albeit niche) debut for Fuller that I could see becoming a cult curio much in the way his TV shows have.