The American (Corbijn, 2010)
With flawed hit-men back in focus thanks to Fincher’s The Killer streaming on Netflix, I was reminded of this version of the archetype which I reviewed 13 years ago (roughly) this week:
In the first scene of The American, George Clooney does something so un-Clooney-like that audience members beside me audibly gasped. He plays a hit-man who might be called Jack or Edward but is probably neither.
After narrowly escaping an attempt on his own life he holes up in picturesque Castel del Monte in the mountains of central Italy. As a single-minded professional with no ties, Jack could be the brother of Clooney’s corporate assassin in Up in the Air and like that film it takes unexpected feelings for a beautiful woman to make him realise how empty his life is.
Directed by famous photographer Anton Corbijn (The Joshua Tree etc), every frame of The American is luscious and perfectly composed, Mr. Clooney makes this stuff look easy and if you’re in the market for a quality Euro-art-house Bourne-type thriller then look no further.
Other titles that were all reviewed in that Capital Times column (spoiler alert: I liked them all): The Disappearance of Alice Creed, the American remake of Let the Right One In, Let Me In starring Chloë Grace Moretz, Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis in the comedy Due Date, and the first feature expanded from a Grindhouse trailer, Machete.
Where to find The American
Aotearoa: Digital rental from Apple (only $2.99 at time of writing!)
Australia: Streaming on Prime Video
USA: Streaming on Starz
UK: Digital rental from the usual sources
Further reading
I added another title to my survey of the Sight & Sound top 50 films of all time at RNZ yesterday – Hitchcock’s Rear Window from 1954. What fun!
