The American
starring George Clooney, Violante Placido, Thekla Rueten, Paolo Bonacelli and Johan Leysen
screenplay by Rowan Joffe
directed by Anton Corbijn
Rating: ♦♦♦◊◊
Based on the novel A Very Private Man by Martin Booth, The American is an extremely quiet movie, featuring beautiful rural Italian scenery. It looks so beautiful that I almost want to go live in one of those medieval Italian hilltop villages. One might almost think it is a good movie to relax to because it’s so uiet and looks so pastoral. However Clooney’s character, an assassin name Jack who is questioning his vocation, is so quiet because he is keeping his dark secrets close and the audience knows it, making the silence uncomfortable and menacing, not relaxing. Called “Last Target” in Japan, the Japanese title gives away part of the plot, the notion that Jack is done with this work and that his current job is his last. But, as we know from other movies about assassins - The Bourne Identity, for example - assassins can never retire, unless it’s permanently and against their will.