Cast: George Clooney, Violante Placido, Paolo Bonacelli, Johan Leysen, Thekla Reuten,
Describing a film as “directed by Anton Corbijn” gives a very different impression to describing it as “starring George Clooney”. While both phrases could technically be directed at ‘The American’, the former is much more accurate and the latter is slightly misleading. An Anton Corbijn film is stark, brutal, and pensive; a George Clooney film is energetic, entertaining (although not necessarily light), and the central character possesses an otherworldly charm that never fails to disarm even the most cynical of critics. ‘The American’ is certainly brutal and pensive, but it is very rarely energetic, and the central character is not charming or absorbing in the way we expect of a Clooney protagonist.
Jack (Clooney) is an archetypal ‘lonely assassin’, hiding out in the Swedish wilderness with his unassuming girlfriend. He is soon discovered, and the cold and ruthless way he deals with these intruders, and his innocent girlfriend, tells us everything we need to know about this twisted husk of a man. Escaping to Rome, his minder Pavel (Leysen) sends him to hideout in a remote Italian village and prepare for another high-end job. He befriends a wily old priest (Bonacelli) and slowly falls in love with a disarmingly innocent prostitute (Placido), and his enforced seclusion sows the seeds of hope in Jack that he might be able to find a life outside of ‘the game’. But he is still being chased by the Swedes, and the high-end job that at first seemed so simple (manufacturing a bespoke weapon for a German client) is becoming much more complex and dangerous.
There is undoubtedly an enormous amount to commend this film. Anton Corbijn is a masterful film director; he has a precise and well-honed sense of visual style and tone, and he is able to translate this into his films with a deftness of touch that is increasingly rare in American-produced films. Reteaming with cinematographer Martin Ruhe (who also shot ‘Control’) ensures that this film eloquently conveys the atmosphere of the story while remaining beautiful to watch throughout. The story obviously involves long periods of waiting with staccato moments of high energy, and Corbijn does an excellent job of managing this dichotomy – imbuing the slower sections with a languid and melodic rhythm that is punctuated by the tingling, paranoid energy of the few chase scenes and dangerous moments that permeate the film.
George Clooney is, well, George Clooney. He is one of the most undeniably watchable actors on the planet, with a strong range of emotions and a passion for filmmaking that somehow translates into his every movement. The problem here is that there simply isn’t enough for him to do. The ‘lonely assassin who falls in love’ is too familiar a concept to be interesting in its own right, and somewhere along the line Corbijn, Clooney, and writer Rowan Joffe forgot to imbue Jack with enough of intensity and conflict to keep the story flowing.
Describing a film as “directed by Anton Corbijn” gives a very different impression to describing it as “starring George Clooney”. While both phrases could technically be directed at ‘The American’, the former is much more accurate and the latter is slightly misleading. An Anton Corbijn film is stark, brutal, and pensive; a George Clooney film is energetic, entertaining (although not necessarily light), and the central character possesses an otherworldly charm that never fails to disarm even the most cynical of critics. ‘The American’ is certainly brutal and pensive, but it is very rarely energetic, and the central character is not charming or absorbing in the way we expect of a Clooney protagonist.
Jack (Clooney) is an archetypal ‘lonely assassin’, hiding out in the Swedish wilderness with his unassuming girlfriend. He is soon discovered, and the cold and ruthless way he deals with these intruders, and his innocent girlfriend, tells us everything we need to know about this twisted husk of a man. Escaping to Rome, his minder Pavel (Leysen) sends him to hideout in a remote Italian village and prepare for another high-end job. He befriends a wily old priest (Bonacelli) and slowly falls in love with a disarmingly innocent prostitute (Placido), and his enforced seclusion sows the seeds of hope in Jack that he might be able to find a life outside of ‘the game’. But he is still being chased by the Swedes, and the high-end job that at first seemed so simple (manufacturing a bespoke weapon for a German client) is becoming much more complex and dangerous.
There is undoubtedly an enormous amount to commend this film. Anton Corbijn is a masterful film director; he has a precise and well-honed sense of visual style and tone, and he is able to translate this into his films with a deftness of touch that is increasingly rare in American-produced films. Reteaming with cinematographer Martin Ruhe (who also shot ‘Control’) ensures that this film eloquently conveys the atmosphere of the story while remaining beautiful to watch throughout. The story obviously involves long periods of waiting with staccato moments of high energy, and Corbijn does an excellent job of managing this dichotomy – imbuing the slower sections with a languid and melodic rhythm that is punctuated by the tingling, paranoid energy of the few chase scenes and dangerous moments that permeate the film.
George Clooney is, well, George Clooney. He is one of the most undeniably watchable actors on the planet, with a strong range of emotions and a passion for filmmaking that somehow translates into his every movement. The problem here is that there simply isn’t enough for him to do. The ‘lonely assassin who falls in love’ is too familiar a concept to be interesting in its own right, and somewhere along the line Corbijn, Clooney, and writer Rowan Joffe forgot to imbue Jack with enough of intensity and conflict to keep the story flowing.
Posts
No comments :
Post a Comment