George Clooney as Jack
 

The American Poster
 

Irina Björklund and
George Clooney

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The American Looks More Like The European

George Clooney stars as Jack, an assassin, and a producer of handcrafted special order weapons, as in machine guns with silencers that will pack neatly into standard sized briefcases.  Beautiful people fill the screen with close range photography and an art noir general feel permeates through to the end. Slow, deliberate pacing, a short but sweet script follow Jack while he lives out his tortured soul life, in the quaint Italian countryside. This is a rare Clooney film as the love scenes are part of the reason for the R rating. The film has something to offer audiences that are looking for more story than action. Directed by Anton Corbijn (Control) and is based on the novel, A Very Private Gentleman by Martin Booth, The American is one of my favorite films of 2010.

The beginning of The American, is winter in Sweden and is somewhat disturbing as a bearded Jack kills three people before we can even get settled into our movie seats. One of the persons is the beautiful girl that we saw halved-clothed with Jack during the opening scene by a romantic fireplace. She’s told to get help after Jack’s attacked by gunfire during their walk in the woods. One, then two men are shot, when the girl turns to do as she’s told, bang, a shot in the back of the head is her fate. We quickly surmise that Jack is a cold-blooded killer.

Next, we view him talking on a pay phone and gathering instructions as he’s told where to hide until the mess he’s made is tidied up. The quaint Italian village of Castel del Monte is his refuge for the remainder of the story. We see his shirt-less daily ritual of chin-ups and push-ups in his tiny apartment. We view him ordering Americano coffee in the local cafe and we see him frequenting the village brothel where the lovely Clara (Violante Placido), a ‘lady of the evening’ is Jack’s favorite.

Jack’s employer (Johan Leysen) offers him another assignment while he’s biding his time. A woman (Thekla Reuten) is in search of a custom-made weapon, one with the capacity of a machine gun, the range of a rifle and compactness of a shotgun. Jack’s handy with his hands and can build such a gun. As he says to her, “I’m not good with machines.” They have several meetings until the test run and these are business-like and somewhat boring. The film has at least four different scenes of Jack constructing the gun which are more intriguing than the visits between the couple.

The scenes that are very interesting and somewhat of a detour from usual Clooney fair are the love scenes between he and his regular girl at the bordello. These are ‘red hot’ and steamy! Clara begins to fall for Jack as well and asks him if they can meet someplace different for a change. He suggests dinner and a romantic date. Jack begins to open up and we view a troubled man with a tortured soul. At the same time, he befriends the local priest who tries very hard to get him to confess his sins.

There really isn’t much action in the film other than the physical attraction between Clara and Jack; which is a refreshing change in an assassin-thriller type film. Clooney is the eye-candy here and we see a very thin guy at that. In one scene, shot from an over-head angle, he looks like Cary Grant.

Near the end of the film, there are some great, wild motorcycle scenes riding down the steps of the village action as Jack is chased by mysterious villains.

Bottom-line: Enjoyable, slow, art noir film that is beautifully photographed.

Sarah Adamson September 2, 2010