There has been countless movies that focus on hitmen/assassins. It’s a subject which i find to be deeply layered and at the same time truly entertaining and engaging at the same time in a film. In my opinion they can create some of the best films of all time, or at least some of my very favourites. From Luc Besson’s outstanding 1994 film Leon: The Professional, which showed this play of depth and excitement with excellent career defining roles from Jean Reno, Gary Oldman and Natalie Portman (in her film debut, and what a debut), to 1997s Grosse Point Blank starring John Cusack, which mixed black comedy, romance and some excellent action all during a high school reunion, and its Cusack at his best, and possibly most recently in 2008 the wonderful In Bruges, with two hitmen (Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson) stuck laying low in the strange European city. The list of these types of quality films is very long.
In 2010, the latest foray into a hitman/assassin focused film is The American, starring George Clooney. Does it deserve to be on this long list with the forementioned films? The answer: A wholehearted NO.
The film has the makings of an excellent film, first with George Clooney, a man who has made some very smart decisions in film over the past decade and has become one of the more talent/best loved actors on screen. His films this year that i have seen i have enjoyed on different positive levels, being Up In The Air and The Men Who Stare At Goats. Also the film is directed by Anton Corbijn, who a few years back in 2007 directed the great bio-pic Control on the late-great frontman of Joy Division, Ian Curtis.
Finally the film has a plot, whilst not unique, one that has great possibilities of excitement, culture-clash, depth and satisfaction. Based on the novel, “A Very Private Gentleman” by Martin Booth, it follows Jack aka Mr Butterfly (George Clooney), an assassin following an incident in Sweden, has a price on his head and must lay low in a very small and quiet village in Italy, where he also has one final target before leaving the profession behind.
However despite these aspects, the film is a huge disappointment. The primary reason for this is due to the lack of momentum, the lack of character development and really, it is painstakingly boring. Most of the film consists of little to no soundtrack, Clooney either walking around empty streets, staring blankly out in the distance, rubbing his face or building a gun (which is somewhat interesting for a moment), but all he does with it is shoot harmless plants. He also has encounters with other characters, a whore, Clara (Violante Placido) obviously with a heart of gold which he sleeps with, Mathilde (Thekla Reuten) another assassin with obvious secret motives and an annoying as hell priest, Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli) who forcefully becomes his friend and makes it his mission to turn him over to God, as he has way too much time on his hands.
George Clooney obviously wanted to show another side to his acting arsenal, which is fine, and impressive of the actor, but with his character being heavily uninteresting as a protagonist, who as said above, just wanders and stares falls down into boredom.
I can see the film wanted to be more of the classic European style film rather than a Hollywood film (which is a shot in the food in terms of marketability, thus the trailer for the film was presented like another Bourne Identity, bad choice). As i watched i remembered my experience of watching Michaelangelo Antonioni’s 1975 film The Passenger, starring Jack Nicholson, another interesting plotted, yet ultimately unsatisfyingly dull experience, effectively sucking the life out Nicholson’s performance. The film however was shot nicely despite this, The American i felt was not.
There are simple things in this film that would have made it infinitely better, being a thicker plot, thicker characters, really just thicker everything. It is okay to want to make a film which is slow paced and beautifully builds character. Heck, director Jim Jarmusch his 1999 film Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai has a similar feel, but why that film worked was the interesting character development, as well as Jarmusch’s signature odd humour. In Bruges utilized the similar plot of The American to it’s avantage, with the sharply comedic script, layered performances and extremely interesting location that played as almost a character in the film.
In the end, i guess The American can be seen as what not to do with this kind of subject matter, and this style of film. It is a huge disappointment in almost every way and a shame to see such talent involved squandered. If you have trouble sleeping though one day, try watching this, it is the perfect sleeping pill.
1/5
