The American (***½)

Directed by: Anton Corbijn

Starring: George Clooney, Violante Placido, Thekla Reuten, Paolo Bonacelli, Irina Björklund, Johan Leysen, Filippo Timi
Seen: December 6th 2010

***½ Out of ****

The American might, from some trailers, be interpreted as an action movie. It isn’t. it is a thoughtful and firm thriller laced with only a bare minimum of dialogue. George Clooney plays Jack/Edward, a highly skilled gunsmith who builds the weapons assassins use on their targets. His employer Pavel (Leysen) is a weathered man who likes to be in control of his assets, of whom two are introduced in The American; Jack and Mathilde (Reuten).

The American starts off with Jack and Ingrid (Björklund) sharing an intimate moment in a Swedish holiday chalet, but when they go for a walk things turn ugly when they are shot at and something inside of Jack springs to life, startling Ingrid. When Ingrid dies, Jack tells Pavel she was a friend, to which Pavel replies he shouldn’t have made friends.

Jack is assigned to a next mission and ends up hiding out in Castel del Monte, where he meets a few of the locals. Mathilde approaches him as she requires the weapon he is to build, Father Benedetto (Bonacelli) tries to take a place as a spiritual father of sorts for Jack to confide in, Fabio (Timi) unknowingly assists Jack in sourcing parts for the weapon, and Jack starts visiting a prostitute named Clara (Placido), who slowly but surely falls for Jack. Jack finds it hard to trust anyone, and is ready for just about anything as he avoids assassins on his trail and suspect possible betrayal from the people who manages to get close to him in any way. The few scenes including shoot-outs or chases are not high action, but still manage to build the tension quite effectively before they end in rather abrupt and disquietingly brutal and underemphasised ways.

The movie is beautifully shot, with quite a few aerial shots of the landscapes and roads of Italy. The pace never reaches breakneck speeds, but the movie still builds to a surprisingly tense final 15 minutes, more so because of what is at stake than because of any high speed chases or action transpiring on screen. The music, by Herbert Grönemeyer, a long-time friend of director Anton Corbijn, softly supports the movie’s quiet pace. The relationship between Jack/Edward and Clara starts of as nothing more than a carnal (a quite intense sex-scene) meeting between a prostitute and a paying customer, but grows into something sensually innocent that the viewer roots for, making the movie into, apart from being a very good thriller, a beautiful low-key romance. Clooney is magnificent as a man alienated from normal life coming to appreciate small things in relationships as his relationship with Clara deepens and he tries to find a way to get out of his current life. As the movie ends the realisation hits you that you just saw more than just an intimate thriller, you saw something about emotional guilt needing an outlet while heading towards an inevitable conclusion.

The American is a very good movie which I would love to see again. It is sad to think that many will miss this or proclaim it as boring should they see it, because I loved it for being exactly what many American thrillers aren’t, a movie that buries itself in your conscience as a relational masterpiece.