George Clooney is one of a handful of movie stars who are throwbacks, the kind of guy who has rugged good looks, serious charisma, who takes challenging roles, and who can actually open a movie on the strength of his name alone. That's all working for him in "The American," the new film from director Anton Corbijn, the onetime photographer who cut his teeth on the Joy Division biopic "Control." The problem, however, with actors like Clooney, is that he's at his best when he's dripping that effortless charm. The character of Jack, the assassin he plays here, is a very serious, humorless guy. And why shouldn't he be? He was recently attacked in Sweden in an event that left his girlfriend dead. He's on the run, hiding out in Italy, unsure of who to trust, and working on a job making a specialty weapon for another hired killer. He's paranoid and detached, talking only to the local priest (Paolo Bonacelli) and Clara (Violante Placido), the gorgeous prostitute he keeps returning to.
Of course, none of this is going to end well. Somewhere along the way, there's going to be a violent comeuppance, and Jack—if that is, in fact, his real name—is going to be involved in it. The film is so slow and languid that by the time we get to that moment, it's underwhelming, right when it needs to be exciting. All of this means that much of the Clooney charm isn't present in "The American." Really, what oozes charm is the ancient Italian city where he's holding up. Centuries old, it's cobbled together with stairways and passages, a maze where your ears and eyes might lie to you. It's the perfect setting for a massive shoot-out that never goes down.
There are some nice touches. Clooney's character is no Jason Bourne. He doesn't act on instinct, and he's constantly in the moment, terrified, trying to sort out what his next move should be. It's a solid piece of acting, but it gets lost in the scenery behind it. And while there's real tension not normally found in today's thrillers, but what's actually missing is the thrill itself.
What the film does do is look just gorgeous. Whether it's an old graveyard, a nude prostitute, or a decrepit café, Corbijn has a beautiful way of washing out his colors and framing his subjects. Essentially, "The American" is an artistic assassin film, which would have been a perfectly legitimate thing to create four decades ago. If you're going to market a movie as a George Clooney hitman film, then somebody better get whacked.
