Look, Ma, George Clooney’s new movie “The American” doesn’t have any shaky cam scenes, gravity defying stunts or other exhausted film tics.
Let’s take a moment to drink that in.
Clooney’s film eschews more than just modern movie conventions. It neglects to give us a protagonist to cheer on. We’re left with Clooney’s star power and maturing acting skills, which are considerable, and a story which can’t rally to save itself in the film’s waning moments.
Clooney plays Jack, an assassin whose latest hit while stationed in Sweden goes awry. He takes out his target but also kills an innocent, someone he made the mistake of getting to know too well. So he decides to cool his heels in a quaint Italian hamlet while his boss (Johan Leyson) figures out what went wrong.
Before Jack can decompress he’s given another assignment, but it’s as mysterious as just about everything else in this minimalist yarn. He must help build a rifle for a fellow killer (Thekla Reuten).
In between long coffee breaks and thoughtfully staring into space, Jack falls for a local prostitute (Violante Placido), a subplot so stale it feels like a jumping off point for a film parody.
Our assassin spends little time working on his cover – he’s supposed to be a photographer on assignment. Jack never so much as fondles a camera shutter, and for a man in near constant danger he sure walks around as if there’s nothing to fear but a fearfully dull screenplay itself.
“The American” works when we see Jack handing the tools of his trade. There’s a panther-like grace to the way he builds his weapons that makes him menacing without saying a word.
And Clooney has very little to say in “The American.” It’s like the film was written for Clint Eastwood circa 1970, but Clooney’s man with an ordinary name lacks the presence Eastwood brought to his iconic roles of yore.
The film offers hints of Jack as an actual, full bodied character, but no such person ever emerges. Clooney’s supporting cast mates try to prop the assassin up, saying he’s a good man with a sinful past. Or something akin to that. They really don’t know anything about him, and nor do we. The presence of an avuncular priest also promises to enrich our understanding of Jack’s plight. But nothing ever materializes.
Kudos to Clooney for using his star power to make a movie that’s everything today’s blockbusters aren’t. It’s ironic that an American star could help make a movie with such an international feel.
“The American” is so thoroughly European you half expect the film to stop in its tracks for a Stella Artois commercial. It’s as if director Anton Corbijn gorged himself on ’70s era thrillers, the closest domestic films got to that Euro sensibility, but couldn’t manage to replicate the reasons why those features gave us so many enduring characters.
In “The American,” the more we get the more we see Clooney’s assassin, the less we care about his fate – or the movie as a whole.
(Photo: and Violante Placido and George Clooney star in “The American.” Focus Features/Photo credit: Giles Keyte)
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Directed by Anton Corbijn? Hmmm, think I’ll just stick to his pretty pictures within Metallica and U2 liner notes. Sounds like it’ll get the same results.
Based on the synopsis, this sounds reminiscent of the James Coburn movie Hard Contract, at least in general plot and style.
The review should really read more like this:
Me no like Clooney politics. Clooney mean to America. Clooney say bad things and make movie criticizing America. Clooney bad man. Me no like Clooney.
Because fact is, that’s the simple minded motivation behind essentially every film review written by a conservative film critic. If the star is too outspoken or even worse, too liberal(see Sean Penn, Matt Damon, Tim Robbins, etc) they can’t like the movie now matter how great it might be. Perhaps John Nolte, Toto, Andrew Klavan, and Kyle Smith should find a new line of work if they are unable to be objective about a film and see everything with partisan blinders on. Seriously you guys should have been writing film reviews for Goebell’s or Stalin if every film you are going to review puts ideology first.
And this works both ways too. They tend to dislike good films like Wall-E, and yes The American, probably one of Clooney’s best films, but sing the praises of sub mental morally bankrupt crap like Kick-Ass because of a deluded libertarian message.
Jack,
I appreciate your sarcasm, but I’m afraid you’re dead wrong. First of all, I mentioned several aspects of the film I enjoyed quite a bit. If you’ve read my writing you’d know I’m a big fan of Clooney the actor. Loved “Up in the Air” and think he’s improving by leaps and bounds as an actor and has excellent taste. He dares to pick smart, challenging projects, and while “The American’ is a misfire it’s still a noble effort.
I think “Dead Man Walking” is one of the best films of the past 20 years, and that Sean Penn wuz robbed of a Best Actor Oscar.
As to grouping me in with Smith/Nolte/Klavan … I couldn’t be any more flattered. But, more importantly, would you like if if this tiny subset of critics, the very few who lean to the right, were gone from the scene? Do you wish all critics were liberal? Do you care if Roger Ebert gives a sub par film like “W.” four stars because, perhaps, it aligns with his ideology?
Isn’t having Klavan, Nolte and Smith working the beat a good thing, if only for a smidgen of ideological diversity?
cftoto,
You write with a presumption that Jack has an ounce of common sense. He, like most American liberals, simply hates. That’s usually embedded in some form of jealousy. You won’t change him, no matter how much logic or reason you deploy.
I think most actors are idiots, or have deep seated self image problems. That doesn’t stop me from watching them if they are decent in their craft (Penn, Clooney, Cusak).
BTW, if a right leaning film critic held the politics of today’s actors against them he or she wouldn’t like a single film.
It has Clooney in it so I’ll pass. I don’t encourage or pay folks who are lefty libtards. I’d rather save my $$$.
Chritian, I have not seen this movie but I saw an ad and it made me wonder if this isn’t a clever analysis of American foreign policy. A lot of Europeans view Americans as well-intentioned children who ultimately do more harm than good because of their naivety. What I saw in the ad hinted at some of those qualities in Clooney’s character and the title itself makes me wonder if the movie is meant to be a parable. An American goes overseas to take out a bad guy but ends up, inadvertantly also killing an innocent. He gets hired to “manufacture” arms, and, maybe..
** spoiler alert?** (I’m asking because I haven’t seen the movie)
and maybe those arms end up being used against him?
Except that Nolte loved Clooney’s performance, calling it “truly outstanding and Oscar-worthy”. If anybody is “see[ing] everything with partisan blinders on” Jack, it’s you.