The American
by Cine Noir
With several films showing at the London Film Festival in the last few years, a festival with a Clooney-led film seems somewhat unseemly. THE AMERICAN marks yet another Clooney film at the festival, but also an intriguing and smart change of direction for Control director Anton Corbijn. Conflicting in its effortlessly cool, self-assured, borderline cocky visual elegance against a tensely narrow yet distancing narrative, THE AMERICAN is a deafeningly hushed film with a conceited momentum that leads to nowhere.
George Clooney is the man with two names; Jack, or Edward, is an assassin, arms expert, professional loner. Whoever, or whatever his title or address, the vigilant untrusting recluse has become wearied by his profession. A wanted man, Jack (or Edward) flees Sweden for the small Italian village of Castel del Monte and awaits further instructions from his superior Pavel (Johan Leysen) to build a rifle for another assassin. During this pastime, Jack (or Edward) is befriended by local priest Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli) and bedded by local prostitute, Clara (Violante Placido). But in between confession and release, Jack (or Edward) is a broken man, fraught with mistrust and a growing affection for Clara.
The American is an internal paradox, for a suspense thriller, the film couldn’t be any less American and is distinctively European in its austere tone. This is largely accredited to the partnership between Corbijn’s contemplative direction and Clooney playing a different kind of Clooney. Suave, innately charming and enigmatic as ever, and as expected, but Clooney’s performance is contradicted by his quiet intensity, aloofness and is notably refined in his just paranoia. Clooney’s withdrawn character is set against the evocative setting of Castel del Monte, which through Corbijn’s spare and remote direction becomes a natural metaphor for Jack (or Edward)’s physical seclusion and mental dislocation.
THE AMERICAN is undeniable visually stunning, taut in its suspense and the performances are second to none, but the deliberately slow pace and abrupt opening scene demand an explanation but, in its smugness, it simply doesn’t bother; and rather than concludes, it just ends. Frustrating or refreshingly smart… it would be the latter. THE AMERICAN is an example of a suspense thriller gripping the audience without the loud explosions, numerous chase scenes, or a mounting body count. The film strips away these elements and sophisticatedly refines the suspense thriller to its fundamental graces and is a prime example of style and substance in minimalistic harmony. But the film is also a psychological study of a man who simply wants out, knowing it would be easier said than done.
