Apparently people hate “The American.”
The Los Angeles Times, citing exit surveys by the market research firm CinemaScore, noted that the film is now the fourth-highest grossing Labor Day weekend film ever, despite dismal reviews from moviegoers, who gave “The American” an average grade of D minus.
Moviegoers no doubt feel duped; based on the film’s marketing campaign, they were probably expecting a Bourne-style action film, with George Clooney as a dashing super-assassin and wall-to-wall action. But “The American” is nothing like the Bourne films. It’s meditative (some might say boring) and deliberately paced (some might say slow), a carefully crafted, elegantly composed movie in the tradition of the European crime films of the French New Wave, such as Jean-Pierre Melville’s “Le Samourai,” or Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni’s austere studies of alienation and existential stagnation.
As film critic Jim Emerson writes, “... it’s no wonder that the mainstream American audiences who made it the top-grossing picture of the weekend (I saw it at a jam-packed Labor Day matinee) hated it.”
I found “The American” engrossing from its first scene, where the taciturn assassin played by Clooney goes for a stroll with his lover, is attacked by gunmen on the hillside, and then, in one of the movie’s genuinely shocking moments, shoots his lover in the back — not because she set him up or did anything wrong, but because of what she’s seen.
For me, this opener was a grabber, with a level of suspense and sense of dread that never fully dissipates, even during the film’s more peaceful passages. At times, the movie is so hushed and beautiful it feels more like a travelogue — I found myself wishing for a trip to Italy — but the sense that something’s going to happen, that violence could explode at any moment, hovers over every frame.
I’m not sure what the audience I saw this film with thought of it, but they were quiet and sat through the entire thing. The movie’s final scenes might be a disappointment (although I liked the film’s muted and somber resolution), but the tension and intrigue of the earlier scenes makes it difficult to look away. Most people probably sit through the film patiently waiting for a payoff that never quite comes.
The reason this payoff never comes is because “The American” isn’t an action movie, at least not in the traditional. It’s a character study, but one with an anti-hero who rarely speaks, and whose motions are ambiguous. Roger Ebert compares George Clooney’s hit man to a samurai and describes the film as having the focus of a Japanese drama (click here) writing, “‘The American’ allows George Clooney to play a man as starkly defined as a samurai. His fatal flaw, as it must be for any samurai, is love. Other than that, the American is perfect: Sealed, impervious and expert, with a focus so narrow it is defined only by his skills and his master.”
Clooney’s conversations with his boss are terse, conducted by pay phone; his meetings with the female assassin for whom he is constructing a gun are also without pretense. While ensconced in an Italian village, Clooney passes the time hanging out with the local priest, visiting a local prostitute (Violante Placido), Clara, and working.
Throughout these calm scenes, director Anton Corbijn (whose highly acclaimed 2007 debut film, “Control,” is currently positioned at 77 in my Netflix queue), does an excellent job of conveying the mindset of an assassin, of what it’s like to be hunted, alone and constantly looking over your shoulder. Clooney has never given a more watchful performance.
The film does fizzle a bit at the end, and contains a fair number of cliches, although for the most part its cliches didn’t much bother me. For instance: Clooney declares this his last job, and anyone who’s ever seen a movie before knows how hard it is to complete one last job. His prostitute girlfriend is another one of those movie prostitutes with a heart of gold, who falls for the one john who has ever shown her a bit of kindness (or interest in her own sexual pleasure). The chase scenes through the streets of Italy recall other movies: “Diva,” with its motorcycle chase through the streets of Paris, “Pepe Le Moko,” with its chase scenes through the Casbah.
And yet I was so engrossed I didn’t really care. The one thing that bothered me was the film’s overwrought butterfly metaphor. Please, Anton Corbijn! You’re better than that!
The fact that people are even going to see this movie is a tribute to Clooney, and his place in the hierarchy of American movie stars. One of the most interesting things about Clooney is how he likes to invest his star power in films that thwart the expectations of his audience. His last film, “Up in the Air,” was a romantic comedy in which the hero ended up alone. In “Syriana,” he played a disheveled, burned out CIA field agent, in a film that appeared to be a geo-political thriller but was actually a complex, multi-layered message movie about America’s addiction to both oil and war. “Michael Clayton” appeared to be a conventional lawyer thriller, but was both darker and more moralistic than the average, say, John Grisham adaptation.
“The American” isn’t Clooney’s best movie, but it might be his best performance. Whether he’ll be able to trick audiences into seeing his next unconventional film remains to be seen, but I’m interested to see what he does next.
Assassin movies are fun! Here are some others.
15. In Bruges — Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are hit men, hiding out in the Belgium city of Bruges. Like “The American,” this film will make you feel like taking a vacation.
14. Grosse Pointe Blank — John Cusack plays a hit man attending his school reunion. Funny stuff.
13. Mr. and Mrs. Smith — Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are a bored married couple ... and rival assassins. A great premise, with great stars.
12. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai — Forest Whitaker plays a hit man who follows the code of the samurai in this quirky Jim Jarmusch film. Jim Emerson compares “The American” to another Jarmusch film I haven’t seen, 2008’s “The Limits of Control.”
11. Collateral — Jamie Foxx plays a cabbie driving a hit man played by Tom Cruise around all night in this stylish Michael Mann film.
10. Assassination Tango — Robert Duvall plays an assassin on assignment in Argentina; while waiting to complete his job, he takes dancing lessons. More character than action.
9. Road to Perdition — Tom Cruise plays a hit man traveling with his son in this underrated period piece from “American Beauty” director Sam Mendes
8. No Country for Old Men — Javier Bardem plays Anton Chigurh, one of the scariest hit men of all time, in this Oscar-winning Coen Brothers film
7. The Bourne movies — What more means to be said?
6. The Day of the Jackal — A hit man known as The Jackal is hired to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle in this gripping 1973 thriller
5. Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill Vol 1. and 2 — Quentin Tarantino knows how to create a compelling assassin. He gave us Vince and Jules in “Pulp Fiction” and The Bride in the “Kill Bill” films.
4. La Femme Nikita and The Professional — Luc Besson knows how to create a compelling assassin. He gave us Nikita, a homeless junkie transformed into a killing machine, in “La Femme Nikita,” and Leon, a hit man who becomes the custodian of a 12-year-old girl, in “The Professional.”
3. Prizzi’s Honor — Jack Nicholson is a mob hit man and Kathleen Turner is a killer for hire in this great dark comedy from John Huston.
2. Le Samourai — French star Alain Delon, at his best.
1. The Machurian Candidate — Poor Laurence Harvey has been brainwashed by the Chinese and turned into an assassin in this 1962 classic. Who knew Angela Lansbury could be so evil?
Got a comment? E-mail me at sfoss@dailygazette.net.
