Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Candida It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

My-Two-Cent I am a huge George Clooney fan and have enjoyed just about everything he's done but my God this film is horrendously bad.. The scenes of him being chased and the clip clop of his Florsheims pounding the pavement was laughable at first but grew to becoming almost annoying as the film was.. I'd pass on watching it but that's just MyTwoCent..!

qmtv George Clooney is not a bad actor, but realistically not great. But, this movie is boring. Imagine if we had a 70s Gallo director directing, without the Hollywood according department involvement. Maybe Tarantino. No, we get boredom. Writing and directing sucks. Acting is fine. Check out: don't torture a duckling, last man on earth, white zombie, Messiah of Evil, anything from fulci.

upnworld.com Is the gentleman in "The American" exclusively an assassin? Leaving aside the template novel by Martin Booth, glimpses of the protagonist's life offered by to us by this pic, make it hard to tell. But there's no doubt that Jack (George Clooney in an iconic performance) has professional duties which include top-tier sharp- shooting. There's no famous world-leader to assassinate, but a bigger inward battle inveigles his target-sight. He spends his arc in this story like a stealthy alpha beast haunted by prescience of its doom - the hunter being the hunted.Director Anton Corbijn takes this slowly simmering thriller and sculpts it with exquisitely pared-down beauty and a gnawing sense of unease. Pic is a marvel of silences and reflective oases interspersed by vistas of a postcard-pretty Italian countryside town. There are only a few characters - all of them memorable. The plot crescendoes to a climax worthy of legendary stories - it's what happens when an European and an American work towards the universal good. The nudity in this movie is a stellar example of how it can be used to superbly seductive effect , rather than being a gratuitous display of private parts. There's a rouge-lit scene in a boudoir that is stunningly erotic , as the stationary lens looks from the bed-side at the upper bodies of gently writhing lovers. Interestingly, that same celestial nudity of Violante Placido (the real-life daughter of Simonetta Stefanelli who had slayed Michael Corleone with the 'thunderbolt' in 'The Godfather's Sicilian countryside) is put to different use in a secluded brook-side setting where she happily partakes of the sylvan waters and then beckons to her lover Jack uttering "Come!!" with child-like joy. Her body adorned only by itself, gels seamlessly with the au naturelle verdant world around them, but Jack, instead of plunging into the infinite frolic of carefree lovers in a private paradise, stands frozen. Haunted by past incident, he burns inside with sudden-onset doubts of whether this nymph is his lover or his enemy.The other lady who taxes Jack's attention is the afore-mentioned Mathilde - a spectacular specimen of the very rare breed which is the female assassin. Her seeming affiliations to a haute fashion ramp melt in a cool flash when she adjusts a rifle's screws swiftly and then proceeds to sharp-shoot like a champion. Sensing something in her, Jack displays not even a flicker of emotion towards her , always maintaining with Mathilde a cool business-like demeanour. When they're done with the job at hand, Mathilde reclines by the grass and breaks the ice for the one and only time when she teases him whether he's in the habit of bringing his woman here. Students of background music would do well to educate themselves in the subtle nuances of the minimalist masterpiece that is Herbert Gronemeyer's background score. Often you're barely aware that there's any music at all but the narrative flows flawlessly. When Jack asks Clara "Will you go away with me....forever?", it is a suddenly formed scene of great and moving romance - and Gronemeyer uses touches of good ol' violin in the background to achieve blockbuster emotion by the bushel. And at the end, the maddening agony of speeding towards your lover is captured with exquisite restraint by a piano (compare and contrast this with another style of music, also accompanying a car perilously careening towards the finish line in 'Rififi').What Anton Corbijn accomplishes here , is commensurate on some key levels, with what Ashok Mehta did with a differently designed film - 'Moksha' : a career lenser assuming the directorial baton to engineer a dazzling fusion of suspense and romance. When the anatomy of an uncompromizing thriller eventually dovetails into a devastatingly poignant love story at the climax, you know that it is a story- telling triumph, that we witness only once in a blue moon. More such @ Upnworld

whatithinkis While I don't disagree with any of the comments I'm reading here, yes, slow, yes scooter chase . . .There's a particular element I'd like to address. I think this film is a study in what it is like to be a hunter all one's life. To come to a point where NO one can be trusted. To be utterly alone. Then slowly to begin to trust and then ironically, just as one approaches his surrender to that trust, he sees that he is dying. Clooney's realization of his impending death in that last scene, his anger, his naked need at his last moment and then he dies . . . what a superb piece of work . . . wow.