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Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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The American (Film)

by Julian Shaw | November 08, 2010 16:47 | Edited November 08, 2010 16:48

Those expecting rollicking thrills may be disappointed but this succeeds as a finely acted slow-burning espionage film.

Photographer-turned-director Anton Corbijn follows up his acclaimed debut Control with a slow, stately espionage film that is moody, dour and defiant at every turn. Whether you perceive Corbijn's reticence to indulge in the more rollicking aspects of the suspense genre as an artistic success or a terminal bore will depend on your sensibility, but there's no doubting the restraint practised here. Not unlike the recent The Town, The American portrays how hard it is to get out of the criminal underworld once you're locked in.

 

George Clooney plays the eponymous American, Edward (one of two names that he uses), a man trying to call time on his career as an assassin. Before he can retire his silencer, he must do one last kill in a rural Italian town. Edward sips espresso, does chin-ups to hone an already greyhound-lean physique, talks theologically with the local priest (Paulo Bonacelli), and at night frequents a bordello whose refinement verges on the idealised if not impossible. When Edward meets a local prostitute (Violante Placido, who has a gorgeous, un-generic quality that truly shines), he knows that he is putting himself in the line of fire - after all, opening up emotionally is the biggest taboo in his line of work. He does it anyway.

 

Clooney looks like a bear awakening from hibernation in the opening scenes, and thereafter recoils further and further into himself in a performance that is tight, tensely defined, and totally expunged of movie star mannerisms. It works. Imagine 007 in real life, played for naturalism, and you'll have a sense of the tone that Clooney is hitting here. Brief exchanges of dialogue sometimes feel overly portentous, but the sense of place is beautifully calibrated, as we are slowly immersed in smalltown Italian life.

 

If you're expecting a thriller, you'll be sorely disappointed. Expect a meditation on loneliness, and it won't seem such a hard slog.