THE AMERICAN (2010) ¢ ¢ ¢
D: Anton Corbijn
George Clooney, Violante Placido, Thekla Reuten,
Paolo Bonacelli, Johan Leysen, Irina Björklund
In "The American", George Clooney plays a hit man named Jack. Or maybe it's Edward. Or Mr. Butterfly. In any case, he's come to this town in northern Italy to lie low for a while and wait for instructions from his minder in Rome. So he spends a lot of time in cafes, makes the acquaintance of the local priest, gets involved romantically with a local prostitute and helps a fellow assassin procure a weapon for a hit, while trying to avoid being bumped off himself. None of this is very plausible, but it plays out in a deliberate, tangential way that's much more in the style of a European movie than a Hollywood one. The casual approach to nudity and the existential conclusion are more European, too, and Clooney carries the movie-star load with a guarded, furtive look, his character's wary tension fitting him like a pair of well-worn shoes. You can tell it was made with a grownup audience in mind, and it might be the kind of thing that sneaks up on you, getting better with repeated viewings.
