Film Review: THE AMERICAN
"George Clooney gets sexy with a gorgeous Italian, makes friends with a priest & struggles with his unglamorous career in this classy noir-ish thriller. Just the kind of film I love" ...Naomi
A SEXY - OLD STYLE FILM - STARING GEORGE CLOONEY
Conflict and intrigue kicks in fast in this character driven thriller, where George Clooney plays Jack/Edward, a merciless assassin with a growing distaste for his dangerous vocation and suspicious of everything and everyone. Jack is on edge and on the move. He goes into hiding, makes friends with a local priest and indulges in a sexy romance with a gorgeous Italian, which ignites life-changing ideas.
I'm a huge fan of this stylish film. I love the off balanced framing and simple camera movements by DOP Martin Ruhe, working with photographer turned director, Anton Corbijn, (Control) who's aesthetics strike a chord with me as a photographer and filmmaker. I also loved the silence, the sound design and music was used subtly, only coming through to add suspense.
It's intriguing to watch George Clooney play this anxious, disciplined and devastating character with such restrained realism and I like that the Italian and Dutch actors are unknown to me and have that old style, continental movie star quality.
Rowan Joffe's intelligent screenplay was adapted from the Martin Booth novel, A Very Private Gentleman. If you're a reader of Australian novelist, Garry Disher, you should enjoy THE AMERICAN, as it has many similarities to the plot and character of Disher's Wyatt books.
The film is lean on dialogue, with a strong, streamlined narrative and a melancholy tone, calling to mind classic Clint Eastwood, Western movies.
Filmed in the mountainous region of Abruzzo, Italy, and prominently featuring the small ancient city, Sulmona, the setting is very much a character in it's own right, with stone balconies overlooking the region, shadowy cobbled pathways, tiny cafés and converging roads.
Tense to the very last moment, I recommend this classy noir-ish thriller to be enjoyed as a big screen, choc top, cinema experience.