“The American” (2010)
Rating: 
“Quel Homage”
George Clooney has made a lot of movies I really like. “The Men Who Stare At Goats” being one of my recent favorites. In “The American” it’s pretty clear what he was going after if you grew up in the 1960′s and 1970′s. That sort of slow, introspective deal with the grandiose scenics and where every wink or nod has intense meaning that characterized European films of that era.
And he captured that feeling amazingly well. Even though all the cars and gadgets are current, the movie actually feels like it’s 1973. This is somewhat due to the locale … which I assume is Northern Italy. American movie-goers aren’t used to seeing that kind of architecture or scenery. Everything is old – probably some of those streets have been around longer than the US itself.
For a film devotee, “The American” is a trip down memory lane. You can see influences from movies like “The Day of the Jackal” and “The Eiger Sanction” in there. The reference to Sergio Leone is a nice touch too. Clooney’s character is a master at building firearms and the rifle he builds is a pretty slick piece of work – especially how he constructs the silencer.
All that said, there are problems. For one, the pace of the movie is just laborious. Yeah, it’s authentic to the era, but it’s just a bit too slow. The whole opening up in Sweden – and why the Swedes are after him at all – is never explained. The only car chase is a Vespa Scooter (I think it was a Vespa) versus some subcompact VW or something like that. And that only lasts a couple minutes. And why is this other bad guy – a trained killer – running away from a guy on a Vespa? Turn the car around and run him down.
The other bad guys (or good guys?) are so blatant that they’re following Clooney it borders on absurd. He’s a hired killer, he sees this guy following him around, and yet he waits until the guy is following him down dark passages – at night – to do anything about it. The assassin in Sweden is a complete tool for standing up and breaking cover so Clooney could shoot him … with a little Walther PPK. Come on.
Clooney’s character falls in love way too easy. I don’t care if he is a burned-out assassin, come on. It doesn’t work – you can see what they’re going for, but it doesn’t work.
The head bad guys go to elaborate lengths to off Clooney at the end, when they could just put an RPG through his window at any time during the film. The local townsfolk seem indifferent to people getting killed or walking around with guns. They missed a chance for a real good plot twist too – given that the townsfolk seem used to having spies walking around, they should have had the priest end up being an assassin too. That would have been a nice twist and added to the “you can’t trust anyone” motif.
Anyway, it’s not a bad movie – but it’s really not a great one either. I think Clooney made it, and made it this way, as an homage to an era he grew up in. If you’re really a fan of genre flicks, or pine for Leone or Antonioni, or if you can just sit through something like this and enjoy the outstanding quality of the cinematography – then you’ll enjoy this movie. But if you’re looking for a modern-era spy movie … you’ll be bored to tears after half an hour.
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