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Review - The American
Jack (George Clooney) has been operating undercover as an assassin and gun maker for so long he has assumed the moniker of 'The American', in Anton Corbijn's major movie debut. This raises certain expectations of the audience in terms of sophistication and charm.
The film opens with Jack surviving an assassination attempt on a frozen lake at the hands of 'The Swedes'. For no apparent reason, other than a deep sense of mistrust, Jack ties up any possible loose ends by cold-bloodedly killing the girl he was holidaying with, and we realise that this will be an unsympathetic portrayal. Jack is in danger of losing his own identity, as the film tries to find its own amongst the familiar pastiche of assassins, pretty girls and double cross.
Clooney is the 'A' list star who can make difficult acting assignments look easy ('Oh Brother Where Art Thou', 'Out Of Sight') but he remains ambitious to develop a repertoire beyond that of out-of-time matinee idol, and prevent the kind of typecasting evident in the Ocean movies.
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In this film, as in 'Syriana', he shows a desire to play darker unsympathetic characters, to the point that it may be only a matter of time before he wins an Oscar for playing some despicable villain. For the time being he is detemined not to smile too much.
Jack, meanwhile, on the advice of the only person he feels he can not entirely mistrust, flees to the charming town of Castelvecchio, east of Rome, in the Abruzzo mountains, where he is so conspicuous he may as well have a band playing 'The Star Spangled Banner' outside his hotel room.
Here he meets three characters, each with a distinct degree of trustworthiness. A priest (Paolo Bonacelli), gorgeous prostitute Clara (Violante Placido), and a female assassin, cheekily called Mathilde after Natalie Portman's character in 'Leon' (Thekla Reuten). Mathilde is keen for Jack to build and supply a customised rifle, possibly to be used to dispatch its own maker.
The director certainly has a stylistic touch. There is some excellent photography, and the film plays along at a sensible pace, with fine performances from the cast. Corbijn does not quite manage to pull it off though. The motivation of the central character is not properly explored, and the plot becomes increasingly predictable. The relationships that Jack forms with the priest and the prostitute need to be developed, so we can empathise with Jack's dilemma, but instead they fail to blossom.
Rating : 6/10 Promising
Review written by John Franklin : November 2010
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