movie review the american george clooney

Zen and the art of rifle maintenance

George Clooney

"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. Here 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 .

Clooney plays a character named Jack, or perhaps Edward. He is one of those people who can assemble mechanical parts by feel and instinct, so inborn is his skill. His job is creating specialized weapons for specialized murders. He works for Pavel ( Johan Leysen , who looks like Scott Glenn left to dry in the sun). Actually, we might say he "serves" Pavel, because he accepts his commands without question, giving him a samurai's loyalty.

Pavel assigns him a job. It involves meeting a woman named Mathilde ( Thekla Reuten ) in Italy. They meet in a public place, where she carries a paper folded under her arm--the classic tell in spy movies. Their conversation begins with one word: "Range?" It involves only the specifications of the desired weapon. No discussion of purpose, cost, anything.

He thinks to find a room in a small Italian hilltop village, but it doesn't feel right. He finds another. We know from the film's shocking opening scene that people want to kill him. In the second village, he meets the fleshy local priest, Father Benedetto ( Paolo Bonacelli ). Through him he meets the local mechanic, walks into his shop, and finds all the parts he needs to build a custom silencer.

In the village he also finds a whore, Clara ( Violante Placido ), who works in a bordello we are surprised to find such a village can support. Jack or Edward lives alone, does push-ups, drinks coffee in cafes, assembles the weapon. And so on. His telephone conversations with Pavel are terse. He finds people beginning to follow him and try to kill him.

The entire drama of this film rests on two words, "Mr. Butterfly." We must be vigilant to realize that once, and only once, they are spoken by the wrong person. They cause the entire film and all of its relationships to rotate. I felt exaltation at this detail. It is so rare to see a film this carefully crafted, this patiently assembled like a weapon, that when the word comes it strikes like a clap of thunder. A lesser film would have underscored it with a shock chord, punctuated it with a sudden zoom, or cut to a shocked close up. "The American" is too cool to do that. Too Zen, if you will.

The director is a Dutchman named Anton Corbijn , known to me for " Control " (2007), the story of Ian Curtis, lead singer of Joy Division, a suicide at 23. Corbin has otherwise made mostly music videos. Here he paints an idyllic Italian countryside as lyrical as his dialogue is taciturn. There is not a wrong shot. Every performance is tightly controlled. Clooney is in complete command of his effect. He sometimes seems to be chewing a very small piece of gum, or perhaps his tongue.

His weakness is love. Clara, the prostitute, should not be trusted. We sense he uses prostitutes because he made a mistake in the relationship that opens the film. In his business he cannot trust anybody. But perhaps Clara is different. Do not assume from what I've written that she isn't different. It is very possible. The film ends like a clockwork mechanism arriving at its final, clarifying tick.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

The American

• Johan Leysen as Pavel
• Violante Placido as Clara
• Paolo Bonacelli as Fr. Benedetto
• Mathilde as Thekla Reuten

Directed by

• Anton Corbijn

Based on the novel "A Very Private Gentleman" by

• Martin Booth

Screenplay by

• Rowan Joffe

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User reviews

The American

The american substitutes outlandish action for a vacuous yet restrained dramatic thriller..

• TheMovieDiorama
• Apr 21, 2019

It's slow, but on purpose, and it has something approaching lyricism

• Jul 31, 2013

More character study than thriller

• Jun 17, 2019

Not to all tastes - but to mine

• rogerdarlington
• Dec 9, 2010

Maybe not what you're expecting, but still a good movie.

• lewiskendell
• Dec 31, 2010

Clooney does very well portraying a loner

• Mar 6, 2011

A quiet and moody character-driven thriller with impressive visuals

• Movie_Muse_Reviews
• Aug 31, 2010

Disappointing

• Oct 27, 2010

Time will value this gem

• elroy_geronimo
• Nov 2, 2010

Engaging Low-Paced Thriller

• claudio_carvalho
• Jan 21, 2011

Much ado...hmmm nothing about nothing

• Oct 31, 2010

A victim of bad marketing

• Sep 14, 2010

Glacially slow, despite some good work by the cast and solid direction

• julian-mumford
• Apr 24, 2011

Clooney is yet another distraught assassin who wants out. Like all distraught assassins, he must do one more job.

• Jan 28, 2011

Intolerable Cruelty

• Nov 11, 2011

"This is not another American spy film..."

• richardosborne14
• Jun 3, 2013

tightly controlled, but effective

• Sep 11, 2010

A slow burn that may not be for everyone

• Sep 2, 2010

Don't waste your time

• timberwolf27-947-890981
• Jan 9, 2011

Superb, Absolutely Superb!

• SerpentMage
• Jul 16, 2011

slow doesn't always mean boring

• starlit-sky

Here we go again

• nysalesman100-1
• Sep 3, 2010

Italy Has Never Looked Better. A Realistic Depiction Of The Life Of An Assassin.

• Real_Review
• Apr 24, 2019

The lonely life of an assassin

• freemantle_uk
• Jan 13, 2012

"Boobs" Is Not a Good Enough Reason to Produce a Feature-Length Film About Nothing

• pianistcomposer

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The American Reviews

The entire picture relies on Clooney’s characterization, but the script by Rowan Joffe, based on the novel A Very Private Gentleman by Martin Booth, offers nothing but atmosphere without feeling.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 9, 2023

If you're a fan of Jim Jarmusch and Nic Roeg, you might enjoy what Corbijn is trying to do here. Otherwise, don't bother.

Full Review | Nov 11, 2022

Despite its title, The American, is a pretentious European cut. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Jul 20, 2022

"The American" plays like a foreign European film, because it is one in every sense of that style. That "style" specializes in the minimal and nuanced, unlike big-budget U.S. films.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 26, 2022

For all the seriousness and atmosphere, there's still a pulpy, page-turner quality to the film's second half - think of the whole package as Bond for the art house crowd.

Full Review | Oct 22, 2021

George Clooney + Anton Corbijn = stylish, watchable inertia.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 25, 2021

The story is just generic enough that by the third act, few outcomes are unpredictable.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Nov 29, 2020

Clooney's performance here is so brilliantly understated that there's virtually no chance he will receive any recognition for it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 2, 2020

... The American is a well-acted, methodical, contemplative and visually interpretive work that, like Jack's namesake butterfly, is an endangered form of filmmaking.

Full Review | Nov 13, 2019

While all-American good boy Henry Fonda remained a badass bastard until that film's end, Clooney's Jack's resolve softens and flitters away like an endangered butterfly.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 29, 2019

This is engaging stuff - a compelling and finely tuned thriller that reminds us just what a star Clooney is while deftly deconstructing the very Hollywood persona he represents.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 7, 2019

Whilst the ending exposes the purpose of his last job and hits the intended target with a bulls eye accuracy, I'm afraid that it's a little too late to care when everything comes to a disastrous end.

Full Review | Mar 1, 2019

The American is a film in which nothing happens for approximately 110 minutes. For long periods, you could be forgiven for thinking that you had walked into an extended perfume or clothes commercial.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 5, 2018

This is a western wrapped up in an Abruzzo tourism brochure, but that's OK. I now know it's my favourite kind of cowboy film.

Full Review | Aug 30, 2018

The American is in fact a double-stunner - a retro-ish Euro-espionage thriller that's written, acted and directed as if it were still 1974.

Full Review | Jul 10, 2018

A lethargic work that breaks out intermittently into action and suspense, an American movie for people who don't like American movies.

Full Review | Mar 13, 2018

The American doesn't set out to be anything other than a twisty, deliberate film that relies on suspense and paranoia more than car chases and gunplay. The problem is that even on its own artsy terms, the film falls apart long before the end.

Full Review | Feb 7, 2018

A lush canvas of verdant riverbanks and dim, foreboding streets at night. The anxious stillness gets under your skin.

Full Review | Apr 28, 2015

Outstanding cinematography and score and excellent acting make for a remarkable movie. The American is a must-see.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Nov 11, 2013

That the film through these slow, poetic paces remains engrossing, engaging, and ultimately oddly affecting is a testament to Clooney's terrific performance.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 13, 2013

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Movie Review | 'The American'

Traveling Man With Few Words and a Big Gun

• Share full article

By A.O. Scott

• Aug. 31, 2010

“You have the hands of a craftsman, not an artist,” says a friendly village priest (Paolo Bonacelli) to an American expatriate whose identity is ambiguous but whose face is recognizable to the rest of us as George Clooney’s. This fellow, temporarily assuming the name Edward, having been Jack before, but known to two different women as Mr. Butterfly, has showed up in a picturesque town in Abruzzo, a mountainous region East of Rome , where he’s pretending to be a photographer. His actual profession, though never quite specified, is more malevolent, and he is currently working on a commission to supply a sexy assassin (Thekla Reuten) with a custom-made weapon.

A good deal of “The American,” directed by Anton Corbijn from a script by Rowan Joffe (adapted from the novel “A Very Private Gentleman,” by Martin Booth), is devoted to the patient examination of Mr. Butterfly at work. He plies his trade with meticulous care, weighing, measuring, disassembling and tweaking his special gun with artisanal devotion. And the virtues of the film itself are those of craft rather than art. Its precision is impressive and fussy rather than invigorating. It 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.

Mr. Corbijn, a photographer who turned to filmmaking with “Control,” his moody and measured biography of Ian Curtis , lead singer of the Manchester post-punk band Joy Division, has an eye for natural beauty and a practiced sense of composition. Frame by frame — eagle-eye views of red-tile roofs and glimpses down narrow stone passageways; sex scenes and shots of Mr. Clooney glumly drinking coffee — “The American” is never less than gorgeous. And the oblique approach it takes to what is a fairly standard plot creates a mood of suspense quickened by the accelerated heartbeat of Herbert Grönemeyer’s unobtrusive music.

A quiet, brooding sense of menace settles in right at the beginning, which finds Mr. Clooney, his silver hair complemented by a snowy beard, rusticating in the snowy Swedish countryside. His idyll is disrupted by homicide, and with the help of a sinister gentleman named Pavel (Johan Leysen), our newly clean-shaven American settles in Italy.

In addition to the priest, he befriends Clara, a prostitute — played by an actress with the splendidly oxymoronic name Violante Placido — who is so stirred by his bedroom prowess that she stops charging him and asks him out for dinner instead. (Some guys get all the breaks.) Meanwhile his business dealings with his client carry a sexual undercurrent that the American may or may not notice.

It is, in general, hard to fathom what he sees or thinks, which is both the point and a bit of a problem. Jack, or Edward, or Butterfly (he’s called that because of a tattoo between his shoulder blades and also because of a more mysterious totemic connection to the insect) is a familiar enough movie type. He’s the lone gunslinger, the masterless samurai, the silent killer whose professional life exacts a toll on his spirit. He wants to leave behind his life of violence and drifting —“I’m out,” he says at one point, in case we were wondering — and to find the kind of human connection that his temperament and his job have denied him up to now.

This kind of character tends to be a man of few words: Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen, Robert Redford in the 1970s, Alan Ladd in “Shane.” Mr. Clooney’s gravelly whisper and diffident, ironical air make him a natural heir to the tradition, and many of his roles — in “Syriana,” in “Michael Clayton” and even last year in “Up in the Air” — are variations on the strong, silent archetype. “The American,” filtering out any mention of the character’s history and suppressing all but the tiniest indications of emotion, tries to strip the man to his essence.

But there is not quite enough there: the still waters run very cool but not terribly deep, and “The American” falls back into a view of its protagonist that is ultimately more sentimental than unsettling or intriguing. Mr. Clooney, shorn of his mischief and charm, does not possess the resources to suggest the state of existential torment that are crucial to the logic of his character. Instead he looks bored, tired, intermittently anxious and sometimes almost excited. At least he seems to appreciate the beauty of the scenery, human and otherwise. It’s hard not to when so little else is going on.

“The American” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Sex and violence, crafty and artful.

The American

Opens on Wednesday nationwide.

Directed by Anton Corbijn; written by Rowan Joffe, based on the novel “A Very Private Gentleman,” by Martin Booth; di- rector of photography, Martin Ruhe; edit- ed by Andrew Hulme; music by Herbert Grönemeyer; production designer, Mark Digby; costumes by Suttirat Anne Lar- larb; produced by Anne Carey, Jill Green, Ann Wingate, Grant Heslov and George Clooney; released by Focus Features. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes.

WITH: George Clooney (Jack/Edward), Thekla Reuten (Mathilde), Paolo Bona- celli (Father Benedetto), Violante Placido (Clara) and Johan Leysen (Pavel).

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'The American': A Domestic Bond, Drawn In Miniature

Kenneth Turan

Love Story: Jack (George Clooney) is an American assassin whose job typically requires him to be a loner on the go. He falls for Clara (Violante Placido) while on an Italian retreat. Giles Keyte/Focus Features hide caption

The American

• Director: Anton Corbijn
• Genre: Romance, Thriller
• Running Time: 95 minutes

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'You Have A Gun?'

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George Clooney is no stranger to big summer blockbusters, but here it is early fall, and he's appearing in a very different kind of film. The American is a bleak and atmospheric art-house thriller that's more of an aesthetic experience than an emotional one. If Robert Bresson, the austere French minimalist, had directed a James Bond film, it might have turned out like this.

Clooney plays Jack, a top-of-the-line American assassin facing a crisis. (If you're a big-deal killing machine, apparently, your life doesn't stay tranquil for long.) Jack is a different, more removed character than audiences are used to seeing Clooney play, a man all but unreachable behind his dark glasses. It's an interior performance that completely avoids the actor's usual high-wattage smile and suave good humor.

Director Anton Corbijn is a former photographer, so every frame of The American is impeccably composed and beautifully shot. This exceptionally high level of craft is satisfying, but it can involve us emotionally for only so long. Schematic tendencies in the script, meanwhile, stop us from caring about this film as much as it cares about itself.

Soon enough Jack gets an assignment. He doesn't have to kill anybody; he simply has to construct a high-quality weapon for another assassin, a mysterious woman.

Jack also has time for a steamy liaison with the gorgeous Clara, the latest in a long line of stunningly beautiful movieland women who just happen to be working as prostitutes in out of the way bordellos. Who knew?

But if Jack's girlfriend brings some life to his existence -- and to the movie -- don't get your hopes up. For while many of its elements whet our appetite and make the film worth seeing, The American doesn't manage to deliver a fully satisfying meal.

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The American: movie review

In ‘The American,’ George Clooney plays an assassin ready for the quiet life in a picturesque Italian village.

• By Peter Rainer Film critic

Sept. 01, 2010, 4:53 p.m. ET

In “The American,” George Clooney , as we are constantly reminded, is playing an American. He is also playing a professional assassin. For the filmmakers, there is some kind of equivalency between being an American and being an assassin. Apparently there are no professional assassins who are not American.

Based on the Martin Booth novel “A Very Private Gentleman” and directed by Anton Corbijn from a screenplay by Rowan Joffe , “The American” is about a very private gentleman indeed. Clooney’s Jack doesn’t make friends easily because they tend to die when they’re around him. An unknowing girlfriend, for example, gets it between the eyes in the opening minutes, propelling Jack into hiding in a mountainside Italian village in Abruzzo. “Don’t make friends,” his handler reminds him.

But nobody counted on Clara ( Violante Placido ), the resident prostitute-with-a-heart-of-gold who is particularly taken with the large butterfly tattoo nestling between Jack’s shoulder blades. “Mr. Farfalle,” she calls him, and she’s not referring to pasta.

This butterfly motif is omnipresent in “The American.” When Jack, working a new job from Abruzzo, constructs a super-duper high-powered rifle for a mysterious hit woman ( Thekla Reuten ), during target practice he delights in the white butterfly that alights on her thigh. Jack’s way of showing delight is, however, minimal. He deadpans his way through life, though he always seems to be chewing gum. In “The American,” chewing gum is what passes for characterization.

Jack is not a happy camper, as the nosy local priest ( Paolo Bonacelli ) is fond of pointing out. Suspecting Jack’s cover story about being a photographer is phony, Father Benedetto tells him that “any man can be rich if he has God in his heart,” to which Jack replies, “I don’t think God is very interested in me.” Touché.

But redemption is on the way. Jack falls for Clara and wants to close out his career as a hit man and live an honest life with her. I’d be more sympathetic about his remorse if it weren’t prompted by a luscious babe – if it were prompted by, say, all the people killed in his line of fire. But these days you take your redemption where you find it.

Corbijn, a renowned portrait photographer, and his cinematographer Martin Ruhe offer up many pretty pictures of Abruzzo, though this movie may not exactly serve as an incentive to travel there since its quaint streets have a tendency to load up with corpses. Everybody seems to speak English, though.

Clooney, particularly earlier in his career, was often compared to Humphrey Bogart , and his role here is reminiscent of Bogart’s hardened criminal Roy Earle from “High Sierra,” except that he’s about as emotive as a brass doorknob.

At some point in their careers, most male actors want to play (a) Hamlet, and (b) a hit man. I hope that Clooney has gotten “b” out of his system. Grade: C- (Rated R for violence, sexual content, and nudity.)

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Never underestimate the power of smart directing and a strong central performance to keep a movie interesting.  Anton Corbijn's The American isn't a film with momentum.  It's not rushing anywhere or even setting up a clear destination.  It's an austere, contemplative piece that holds tension despite rarely introducing an immediate threat.  Corbijn's skilled direction is matched by a thoughtful, quiet performance from George Clooney who plays a character unlike any he's done before.  The American is one of the more difficult films this year as it moves slowly, deliberately, and without any hand-holding.  But the result is a rewarding picture that's refreshing after a mostly disappointing summer movie season.

The American of the title is Jack (Clooney), a hitman who is living a seemingly idyllic life in Sweden which is quickly shattered when men come to kill him (for reasons never explained).  Jack makes it out alive and hides out in a small, beautiful Italian village awaiting instructions from his contact on how to proceed.  He's given a job that requires him to build a specialized rifle for an assassination.  However, his life remains in danger and Jack's (justified) paranoia becomes more intense throughout the film.

During his time in the village, he begins a friendship with local priest Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli) and a romantic relationship with a prostitute named Clara (Violante Placido).  Only Clooney, with his innate charm, could play a character as cold and aloof as Jack and still convince the audience that people like Clara and Benedetto would want to spend time with him.  Jack rarely smiles and he doesn't make standard disaffected hitman quips (he barely even talks), but Clooney uses his tremendous talent to convey the complex emotions of his character.

Placido does a good job of providing the film with what little vivacity it has.  Her chemistry with Clooney is essential in convincing us that Clara can get Jack to betray his instincts and trust some one.  Less successful in playing off Clooney is Bonacelli.  His stilted line delivery and the character's heavy-handed dialogue are made especially awkward in a picture where every aspect down to the bullets fired is restrained and measured.

Jack's taciturn and withdrawn demeanor is matched by Corbijn's sparse, quiet direction.  The American is a movie told with almost no flash or tricks, and yet it's rarely dull.  It's fascinating how Corbijn is able to hold the audience's attention while intentionally never engaging the viewer.  It's a tricky balancing act and while the film does become a little too remote and somber at times, for the most part it's a hard-earned success.

Focus Features is trying to sell The American as an action-thriller, and that expectation is going to disappoint a lot of ticket-buyers.  The film can be incredibly tense and the brief chases and gunfights are effective, but this movie is a slow burn.  It's about a hitman in an existential crisis as he feels death is about to close in on him and attempting to answer the question of whether he should even bother having a life.  Corbijn and Clooney deserve great credit for crafting a film that's far outside what the mainstream expects and which will catch a lot of viewers off guard.  It meanders at its own pace, and walks perfectly in line with its protagonist's emotional state.  The film can at times be distant to its own detriment, but it never falls so far of course that it loses the audience completely.  The American doesn't try to lead and that's largely why it's so irresistible to follow.