Thursday, September 2, 2010
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Thursday, September 2, 2010
MOVIE REVIEW
The American
Number One With A Bullet, And Gunning For Love
Violante Placido as Clara and George Clooney as Jack in
Anton Corbijn's "The American", which opened yesterday in the U.S.
Focus Features
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Thursday,
September 2, 2010
Wise, taut and perceptive, "The American" is a late summer treasure for adults.
Anton Corbijn's thriller treats its audience with respect.
George Clooney furthers his depth as an actor with another great, palpable
performance. The film opened across the U.S. yesterday.
Shot in the Italian countryside and directed efficiently and economically, "The
American" at its heart features Jack (Mr. Clooney), a lone assassin and weapons
dealer. He's a one-stop shop for ammo too. Want a gun made while
you're waiting? He
is indeed a Jack of all trades. Assigned to perform a hit, Jack's
proficiency is tested early and late. In between he inhabits a town the
way that the Man With No Name wandered onto the landscape in Sergio Leone's spaghetti
westerns. (Not by accident, Mr. Leone's "Once Upon A Time In The
West" features briefly during
Mr. Corbijn's drama.)
Virtually nothing is known about Jack. A mystery man without a real
purpose, love is farthest away yet closest thing to his vest.
Jack, for all his clinical methods, is almost faceless. As played by Mr.
Clooney, Jack is a stoic, cautious yet instinctual animal whose fears are
contained in the subtle movements of his eyes. For large portions of this
seamless, well-contained movie Mr. Clooney reacts to silence so well we seem to
see the wheels turning within him. It's a fiercely cerebral
performance.
Jack seeks a knowing solace in the big picture: we all have our cross to bear
and sinning is within us all.
To put this into a certain parlance: Mr. Clooney, who looks more like an older
Cary Grant than a Clark Gable, is more than just a pretty face on the big screen.
He has a depth that carries weight. He's convinced us as a lawyer crossing
ethical lines in "Michael Clayton", as a company
man tied to air travel in
"Up In The Air", and here in this disciplined Euro suspense flick.
"The American" never overplays its hand. It's a persuasive, genuinely
enticing film filled with a bevy of good performances by actresses including
Violante Placido, who is stunningly beautiful and perfectly balanced as Clara.
Each actress serves a distinct and important purpose to both the story and Jack's mindset.
Based on Martin Booth's novel A Very Private Gentleman, "The
American" is
tightly scripted by Rowan Joffe. Mr. Corbijn lets the film's tense and
pedestrian moods emanate from and around the main character, who is an
anti-hero of sorts. The film thrives off the notion that as discreet as he
is, Jack as an American is out of place in Rome. Some established American
actors could easily be out of their depth in this type of overseas endeavor, but
Mr. Clooney is comfortably at home abroad.
"The American" harkens back to great Hitchcock thrillers and 1960s/70s action
dramas, and Martin Ruhe's great cinematography includes shot sequences that
recall Carol Reed's classic film "The Third Man". (It
isn't hard to think of television series like "The Prisoner" when observing the
physical dimensions of "The American" and the predicaments Jack is enmeshed in.)
The poster
for "The American" is reminiscent of the artwork done by Saul and Elaine Bass, evoking earlier
films and TV series like "The Avengers". Jack himself is a throwback to Steve McQueen's "Bullitt": cool
and clinical, though lacking the confident, strong sex appeal of Mr. McQueen's
San Francisco police detective title character.
Many audiences will enjoy "The American". Some will find it a little
slow for their tastes, but it's in the deliberation of Mr. Corbijn's
entertaining film that you witness a scintillating chess match, spiced with
flavor, excitement and tactical flair.
With: Irina Bjorklund, Johan Leysen, Paolo Bonacelli, Filippo Timi, Thekla
Reuten.
"The American"
is rated R by the Motion Picture
Association Of America for violence, sexual content and nudity. The film's
running time is one hour and 43 minutes.
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