The American (2010)
Directed by Anton Corbijn
Dispatched to a small Italian town to await further orders, assassin Jack embarks on a double life that may be more relaxing than is good for him.
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So far, so kind-of familiar, and don't think the filmmakers don't know it; Clooney, who's one of the film's producers, has cited this picture as an homage to works he hasn't, to the best of my knowledge, explicitly named, but one would have to conclude they include the likes of "Le Samourai," not to mention Wenders ' " The American Friend ," Antonioni 's " The Passenger ," and so on.
If "The American" isn't a masterpiece like "Once Upon A Time," and Michelangelo Antonioni's "The Passenger" -- the film it more obviously pays homage to -- it's still a cool, minimalist thriller that features gorgeous camera work by Corbijn and a strong, understated performance by Clooney.
Corbijn’s chilly, high-angled style favorably evokes Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Passenger, as well as that hazy 1960s period when out-of-fashion movie stars found themselves cast in stylized European films in order to shore up the international box office.
In a scene about midway through "The American," George Clooney's character is sitting in a bar where Sergio Leone's masterful "Once Upon A Time In the West" is playing on TV.
And any movie in which rustic afternoon barflies can be found watching Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West can't be all bad.
(The brief glimpse of Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West is far from random.)
You think you can escape history”…snap!), which contrast to the annoying scene in which Once Upon a Time in the West plays on a bar TV.
Jack is just a drone, and a pretty uninteresting one at that. Henry Fonda managed to reverse the polarity on his likeability with his bad guy guise in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West.
Like Henry Fonda playing the villain in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West, a pivotal scene of which we see being shown on television in The American, the against-type casting makes the character that little more chilling and untrustworthy since they are so far removed from how we normally regard them.
With its focus on the fascinating minutiae of carrying out an assassination, The American partly resembles the fine 1973 thriller The Day Of The Jackal, about an attempt on Charles de Gaulle’s life, though it’s much sparer, and completely apolitical.
His contact sends him a mysterious client (Thekla Reuten), who asks him to manufacture a lightweight weapon not unlike the one in Frederick Forsyth's "The Day of the Jackal."
But we don't see it here, for Corbijn, unfortunately, has absolutely no idea how to build suspense, sustain a story or tighten the tension around the filmgoer's throat the way Fred Zinneman did so superbly in The Day of the Jackal (1973), the style and feel of which this picture so desperately wants to emulate.
That's a promising moment ? it suggests that Clooney is playing the sort of sociopathic hitman one remembers from films like The Day of the Jackal (1973).
Way back in Pretty Woman Julia Roberts showed how to successfully transition from prostitute to love interest while hired killers have been going downhill since John Cusack gave us Martin Blank in Grosse Pointe Blank .