The American' review: George Clooney brings back Old-Movie appeal in grown-up thriller

'The American' review: George Clooney brings back Old-Movie appeal in grown-up thriller

Joe Neumaier

Keyte/AP

George Clooney plays the ever-contemplative Jack in Anton Corbijn's 'The American.'

<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-8039587250252125";
google_ad_host = "pub-1556223355139109";
/* 300x250, created 10/06/29 */
google_ad_slot = "9758008857";
google_ad_width = 300;
google_ad_height = 250;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script> 

Related News

• George Clooney goes to bed with 'Modern Family'
• The toughest guys on the movie screens this fall are real men of action
• George Clooney's gal pal connected to cocaine, prostitution bust
• Clooney's a star on the stand
• George Clooney fights back, testifies in fashion fraud case
• Explosives discovered near George Clooney's Italian villa
• 
  

Talk about silent but deadly.
"The American," a movie as coiled as a snake and as still as a sleepy villa, is the rare grownup thriller that knows the link between peace and danger and the tension that comes from both.
Director Anton Corbijn lets us know absolutely nothing when we're plunked down with Jack, a world-weary assassin in the middle of what turns out to be a brief break from the violence in his life.
Yet since Jack is played by George Clooney, most people won't mind a little quiet time with the guy, no matter his profession.
Jack's past may be nonexistent, but as his present comes into view, this meditative, nearly music-free movie takes shape.
On the run from people who want to kill him, Jack heads to a picturesque Italian town.
But his distinct talents are still in demand, and he agrees to construct a rifle for a mysterious client named Mathilda (Thekla Reuten).
As Jack pieces together Mathilda's weapon, though not her intentions, he falls for a local prostitute (a heartbreaking Violante Placido) and befriends an old priest (Paolo Bonacelli), and his solitude starts to turn toward engagement. Which may or may not be a survival instinct, and even if it is, it may not matter anymore.
"The American" is filled with an irresistible Old World, old-movie appeal. While avoiding "Bourne"-style kinetics in an adaptation of Martin Booth's 1990 novel "A Very Private Gentleman," Corbijn, a photographer-turned filmmaker (2007's "Control"), expertly rewinds us to the paranoid thrillers of the 1970s - with some Alfred Hitchcock, Graham Greene and stylish '60s cool thrown in.
Like Julian Schnabel and Tom Ford, he's a filmmaker whose visual and narrative sense, honed in other art forms, fits perfectly with out-of-the-ordinary work.
Clooney, meanwhile, anchors the mix of contemplation and combat. He's always at his best when toggling unexpectedly between extremes - here, when urgency is required, he tacks toward watchful; when things seem mellow, he's on the verge of jumping out of his skin.
It's been a while since he's let himself be alone at the center of a storm like this, and with his gun-metal gray hair and alarmingly gaunt appearance, he's a far cry from the jovial ringmaster of the "Ocean's Eleven" films.
There's a scene in "The American" where Jack, looking for gun parts, walks through a mechanic's garage and picks through greasy cylinders and springs, seeking the right components for the job.
In a glance Clooney shows Jack's efficiency and curse, and the movie's ideas are right there in his face. Jack is a man constantly caught in the cross hairs and always shocked to find that's right where he belongs.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2010/08/31/2010-08-31_the_american_review_george_clooney_brings_back_oldmovie_appeal_in_grownup_thrill.html#ixzz16C5YhqAc