Talking Pictures

Rich Bonaduce reviews “The American”

Rich’s Quickie: A solid performance by Clooney in a movie that is not your usual fare, and may suffer from inaccurate billing.

Now THAT’S America! My buddy Luke Hickman at thereelplace.com may have said it best; “For a movie in which not much happens, it’s still pretty tense!” George Clooney shows us a different side of himself in an assassin near the end of his career, with no future and no human connection in his life. A study of the life of a loner and lonely man, “The American” has few actual action scenes, and spends much of its time showing Clooney doing the solitary work of assembling a weapon in preparation for one last “job”. But normally oozing-with-charm Clooney is convincing as “Jack/Edward”, staring down the maw of the life his character has chosen; and his good looks totally undermine the elegance and flash of other, “look how cool it would be to be an assassin” movies.

Ya pinko! The action shot of Clooney in the poster art is about as fast-paced as this movie gets, and that may bug American audiences more accustomed to the action scenes in “The Expendables”. It also has quite the “European” ending, which also may not satisfy American audiences accustomed to everything being wrapped up in a bow at the end. But truth be told, it was the only ending his character’s story could have had, and “The American” is more of a character study than the action thriller it’s touted as being. Then again, what it lacks in action it makes up for in boobies.

Movie Grade: B

Director: Anton Corbijn
Writers: Rowan Joffe (screenplay), Martin Booth (novel)

Rated R for violence, sexual content and nudity.

Tags: Rich Bonaduce reviews, talking pictures, the american
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