The American
Thriller about an assassin (played by George Clooney in serious mode), who hides out in Italy for one last assignment. He strikes up a friendship with a local priest and a beautful woman, but can't escape the aftermath of a botched job in Sweden.
This is director Anton Corbijn's follow up to the brilliant Ian Curtis biopic Control.
- Director:
- Anton Corbijn ('Control')
- Writer:
- Rowan Joffe
- Cast:
- George ClooneyBruce AltmanThekla ReutenIrina BjörklundViolante PlacidoPaolo Bonacelli
Reviews & comments
Ameri-can't
Much like the recent HANNA, this is a movie that tries to be a moody arthouse contemplation of violence and the man, but ends up as just a beautifully shot and slow moving wannabe. If it's art mixed with cerebal action you want, try Nicolas Winding Refn's DRIVE or PUSHER Trilogy. THE AMERICAN tries way too hard to be as super cool and detached as Kubrick or...
beautifully shot but long and boring
it looked like one of those 70's arthouse movies with the wooden acting to boot. Like others, I waited for it to start, saw where it could go with the assassin after him and who it would be, and thought it could still get exciting when that happens...but it didn't.
Slow, but beautiful, gripping, moving and memorable
Variety
pressThe tough-cool tradition of classic French crime dramas lives in Anton Corbijn's thriller, "The American," until oddities and an unbelievable love story render it soft and nearly forgettable.
The New York Times
pressIt is a reasonably skillful exercise in genre and style, a well-made vessel containing nothing in particular, though some of its features - European setting, slow pacing, full-frontal female nudity - are more evocative of the art house than of the multiplex.
The Guardian
pressGeorge Clooney returns, setting aside the warm and witty persona that his fans love, and giving them instead one of his darkest and most unsympathetic characters: an ice-cold professional killer marooned in loneliness and fear.
Roger Ebert
pressHere is a gripping film with the focus of a Japanese drama, an impenetrable character to equal Alain Delon's in "Le Samourai," by Jean-Pierre Melville.
New Zealand Herald
pressThriller shoots first then asks existential questions later. For quite some time.
Hollywood Reporter
pressNothing really adds up, and the ending is downright absurd. You would like even the most austere, doctrinaire existential movie to earn its downbeat ending. This one fails utterly to do so.
Variety
pressThe tough-cool tradition of classic French crime dramas lives in Anton Corbijn's thriller, "The American," until oddities and an unbelievable love story render it soft and nearly forgettable.
The New York Times
pressIt is a reasonably skillful exercise in genre and style, a well-made vessel containing nothing in particular, though some of its features - European setting, slow pacing, full-frontal female nudity - are more evocative of the art house than of the multiplex.
The Guardian
pressGeorge Clooney returns, setting aside the warm and witty persona that his fans love, and giving them instead one of his darkest and most unsympathetic characters: an ice-cold professional killer marooned in loneliness and fear.
Roger Ebert
pressHere is a gripping film with the focus of a Japanese drama, an impenetrable character to equal Alain Delon's in "Le Samourai," by Jean-Pierre Melville.
New Zealand Herald
pressThriller shoots first then asks existential questions later. For quite some time.
Hollywood Reporter
pressNothing really adds up, and the ending is downright absurd. You would like even the most austere, doctrinaire existential movie to earn its downbeat ending. This one fails utterly to do so.
Ameri-can't
Much like the recent HANNA, this is a movie that tries to be a moody arthouse contemplation of violence and the man, but ends up as just a beautifully shot and slow moving wannabe. If it's art mixed with cerebal action you want, try Nicolas Winding Refn's DRIVE or PUSHER Trilogy. THE AMERICAN tries way too hard to be as super cool and detached as Kubrick...
beautifully shot but long and boring
it looked like one of those 70's arthouse movies with the wooden acting to boot. Like others, I waited for it to start, saw where it could go with the assassin after him and who it would be, and thought it could still get exciting when that happens...but it didn't.
Slow, but beautiful, gripping, moving and memorable
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