Movie Summary of The American by Michael The Moviegoer.
THE AMERICAN = ***
“Privacy In Plain Sight”
The novel “A Very Private Gentleman” comes to the screen with the bland title “The American”. The entire film is set in Europe. Not one scene in America. So why that title?
But I’m not being critical of the setting. If anything, the locations in Sweden and Italy are what make this film so worth watching.
George Clooney is a samurai-like hit man with a special skill for assembling customized weapons. In Italy he meets a beautiful and mysterious client who is looking for a weapon with precise specifications. What she needs it for is unknown to us. So, yes, this is one of those movies that you could think doesn’t have much of a plot, but you’d be wrong.
We’ve been programmed to easily seek out and recognize plots in movies as though there is some sort of routine formula they must follow in order to be successful. “The American” succeeds because nothing in it is obvious. Look and listen closer and you’ll find details that keep changing what his puzzle is supposed to look like.
If you’re old enough to remember the days when you had to bring your brain to the movies, this one’s for you. It’s a riveting suspense drama. A stylistic throwback to the European art films of the 60s and 70s. Director Anton Corbijn, known from 2007’s “Control”, takes his time with everything. His film is so quiet there are moments when the stillness in the theatre and the stark silence become deafening. This movie may actually have the least dialogue of any movie released since the birth of the talkies.
For most films, that minimalist approach could equal extreme boredom. But every moment in Corbijn’s film is filled with heightened intenisty because of this. It gives this film a strong Hitchcockian feel, and Clooney reminds us of Cary Grant in “North By Northwest”.
“The American” requires patience and may not be everybody’s cup of tea. But it is a rewarding experience for those who are game. It’s not an action-packed samurai metaphor the way 1998’s “Ronin” was. This is more of a psychological character study.
DVD Double Feature:
This movie reminded me of one of my favorite European assassin movies of the 70s. Fred Zinnemann’s 1973 masterpiece “The Day Of The Jackal”. Edward Fox plays an assassin hired to kill General Charles de Gaulle. Michael Lonsdale is the french detective tracking him. A great European cat-&-mouse game.
Michael The Moviegoer
