This Yank Is Messing With The Dumb Kids

You've got to give it to George Clooney. After nearly killing his own career in the monstrosity that was Batman & Robin, Clooney's made a choice to only star in projects with quality and integrity. That means no bullshit. And for an A-List movie star that's one big risk. While most serious actors are quite content to sell out and do a Jerry Bruckheimer movie every 4 or 5 years, Clooney resists, opting for more highbrow, mainstream fare like the Oceans movies. Everything else that Clooney does is in great danger of being ignored by the dumbed down masses due to them having a serious or sophisticated tone (Michael Clayton/Goodnight & Good luck), arty direction (Solaris/Fantastic Mr Fox) or retro sensibilities (The Good German/Leatherheads). Yet because of his integrity and his high standing in the Hollywood community, Clooney is still in a position to churn out A-List movies.

His latest, The American, is no different. It's the familiar tale of a professional hitman who comes to realise he wants out of his dangerous lifestyle. It follows the standard genre plot trajectory right through to it's obvious conclusion. But The American isn't a movie about 'story', it's about character. Using the minimal amount of dialogue possible combined with a restrained, static directorial style the film is a slow-burn character study of a man that has nothing in his life apart from his work (in many ways it's a subtext close to Clooney's Up In The Air). Through his actions, and interactions with the local town Priest where his Assassin is hiding out...along with the various women who intersect his life, we gradually see a man in his own personal hell; he's good at what he does, but the loneliness and the mistrust off all other human beings has taken it's toll. Through tiny, barely registering looks and gestures, Clooney communicates Hitman Jack's ever increasing unease with his situation.

Anton Corbijn directs with a minimalistic sophistication, Martin Ruhe's cinematography is lush and gorgeous and the various women are Euro-classy and to die for. There's little action, little chit-chat and the plot is wafer thin but The American is well worth your time if you know what you're getting yourself in to.